nil 



il!,. i!-!il hlfl 



IP 



i; 



§v 




Class jWxiaa^ 

Book , C^ 

Copyright N° 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSITS 



THE 20th CENTURY AGE 
OF REASON 

A l^eference Worl^ on 

PHYSIOLOGY, PHRENOLOGY, 

PHYSIOGNOMY, PSYCHOLOGY, 

GENEALOGY. 

Between Man and the Animal and Their Creation and Characteristics. Man 
Being Possessed with the Same Nature, Makes it Impossible at all Times for 
the Spiritual Nature to Overcome the Evil Propensities. Also Treats on 
the Attributes of the Human Race by the Unnecessary Conditions, Making 
Man Different Spiritually from That Which His Creator Intended Him to 
Be. Showing the Necessity of Making Environments for the Welfare of the 
Present and Future Generations, Thereby Home and Political Economy Will 
Be Practiced, Causing an Equal Distribution of Wealth, the Same Produc- 
ing a Greater Amount of Happiness. 

O 



Prejudice is Ttv ^ ^^-s^St^^'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^M'^J^ ^^ i/- 




wledge 



Mowieaee 



the mother of j''i=,«5s.;i,^^»rji^K!'^.s?»^is^"«'»«P3»>«r^^^ .,; 

J , *• J -^^ ^^^wfW^'^^^^^^^y^^&^^i^^mLtr^ without pother 

IZranceZe >« ^'^^'^^^^^^^^^M> " useless 

father of ^^ ^ FW^'^^^K "JllZfi^^^^ 
conceit. 



applied. 



f Why it Was Essential That Man Should Be Created as He Was to 
Perform What God Intended He Should, to Be Ruler of the Earth. That 
Man May Guide Himself by the Knowledge Acquired and Imparted to 
His Fellow-Man, Thereby Causing a New Regime of Living. But Owing 
to Our Present Condition Makes a Necessity of the Whipping Post and a 
Purgatory. 

"If I write my thoughts on marble, in time they will crumble into dust ; 
If I write them on the hearts of men, the}) will live forever. " 

— Daniel Webster. 






Gl 



ILIBaARYofCONGE^ESSj 

Two Cooies Received 

FEB 27 130r 

n Copyright Enixy , 

Xm^. //, "jo^ 

cuss A XXcNo. 
COPY B« / 



Entered, according to Act of Congress 
All rights reserved. 



Copyrighted, 1906, by S. B, GOFF, Sr. 



C. S. Magrath, Printer, 
Camden, N. J. 



• PREFACE. 

The purpose of writing this book is to develop in the mind of the reader 
the great necessity of a change in our social customs and the creating of 
environments adapted to the needs and requirements of the people, in 
order that they may obtain more pleasure, more hopes and comfort. We 
are all striving to reach this condition, hoping thereby to receive greater 
amount of happiness. The absorption of the facts contained herein will 
enable the reader to so shape his . course in life as to avoid that which 
belittles and secure that which is lasting and abiding. The author, dur- 
ing his three-score years, has acquired certain knowledge, enabling him 
to see the practical side of life. It is his desire to impart this knowledge,. 
that the world may be better for his having lived in it. Kjiowing that 
unless a person has the right conception, he must suffer, physically, men- 
tally and morally. We should each do our part so that every one may 
secure the greatest amount of happiness in this life. We all know that 
our unrest is largely due to the inconsistency of others. Therefore, the 
only way to overcome this one great evil is by the diffusion of universat 
knowledge, knowing that power without knowledge is dangerous. Actions 
and doings without reason are of the animal. If they cannot then we are- 
justified in classing them with animals. We expect those who make dis- 
coveries in arts and sciences to give a reason for the same. It is his duty 
to impart such knowledge as a scientist who discovers some means of 
curing some bodily ills. He is counted blame worthy in refusing to com- 
municate it to others. The author has attempted to give a reason why 
there are so many failures on the part of those who assume the responsi- 
bility in governing the human race by our present form of government. 
Thereby the known will result in the greatest good to the greatest number. 

Because of a natural thirst for knowledge, as was the case with our 
first parents, all men retain the same desire to pry into the things which 
seem to be forbidden ; therefore, the temptations now presented in view 
of financial gain should be removed so that mankind might be developed 
in the young men of our land, for we who have preceded them know that 
theoretical knowledge is not sufficient and those succeeding us are not 
willing to accept our testimony on these things, but each desires an exper- 
ience of his own, thus causing a great amount of misery and many prodi- 
gal sons. 

I feel confident that after reading the contents of this book you will be 
thoroughly convinced of the logical reasoning contained herein, and as 
you investigate farther, you will perceive that it is my motive to help 
others that they may obtain more enjoyment out of life without resorting 
to present customs in the use of narcotics as a luxury, and thus endeavor- 
ing to fill up the gap in our lives by the constant search for things that 
tend to make for happiness. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



PAGE. 

A Horrible Example 221 

Alcohol Always Harmful 285 

Alcohol and Its Injurious Effects 28 

Alcohol Killing France 254 

A Mystery Solved in a Nut Shell 311 

An Amusing Trip to the Seashore 247 

A Great Catastrophe 301 

A New Catechism 259 

-Anatomy of the Brain 137 

Andrew Carnegie's Warning to Young Men 236 

Animal Traits 73 

An Open Letter 73 

Are Intoxicatmg Liquors and Tobacco a Disease or a Luxury 178 

A Woman's Practical Argument 298 

A Word to Business Men 224 

Billion a Year for Drink 62 

British Rum Trade 253 

Carnagie and Education 45 

Christian Science Refuted 172 

Christian Science and the Religious Press , 173 

Cigars Forty Years Old 265 

Cigarette Smokers Not Wanted 298 

Creation 130 

Darwin Theory Refuted 164 

Deaths Among Drinkers and Non-Drinkers 259 

Divorces 258 

Does the Use of Tobacco Cause Railroad Accidents ? 99 

Dr. Gleason on Tobacco 29 

Dr. Peters Preaches on the Perils of Wealth 223 

Early Habits 299 

Emolument 126 

Father Does It 243 

Fifteen Years Ago (Poem) 246 

Fighting Cigarettes for Years 235 



INDEX. 

PACK. 

Gambling and Graft 213- 

Government and Poverty z^. 

Great Lake Railroad 262 

Graft and the Civil War 46 

Has the Prohibitory Law Been of Financial Advantage to the 

State of Maine ? 2^50^ 

Hogs vs. Men 264 

How License Works in Vermont 251 

How Liquor is Debauching Pittsburg 226 

Insanity Growing at Alarming Pace 238 

Invest in Your Children 267- 

Is Electricity Life ? 132 

Is Man an Animal ? 67 

Is Not Pain the Outgrowth of Reason ? 287 

Is Sin the Result of Ignorance or the Higher Development of 

Mankind ? 103 

Issue Proposed for the New Political Party 95 

Is the Love of Money the Root of All Evil ? 119 

Labor Day 276 

Let Not Your Heart be Troubled T09 

Liquor and Longevity 222 

Local Option 33 

Maine's Prosperity LTnder Prohibition 225 

Many Say That Prohibition is Not Practical 160 

Nerves of the Brain 142 

No Need for a Devil 80 

Obeying Orders 102 

Only Clean Poor to Get Atlantic's Alms 237 

Power of Example 300 

Present Condition of Man "j^y, 

Prohibition a Civic Necessity 153 

Punishing Its First Use 17 

Purgatory 79 

Reform Begins at Home 208 

Religion 107 

Responsibility of the White Man for Making the Negro 

What He Is 151 



INDF.X. 

PAGE. 

Roosevelt's Silence and His Power 43 

Should a Woman Marry a Man Who Drinks ? 257 

Should Not the Curfew Law Become General? 205 

Should Not People Enjoy God's Pure Air? 293 

Stops Selling Rum, He says is Impure, an Old Mother's Plea 240 

Suicide Record is Broken in Year 1905 297 

Sulkiness Will Not Win You Friends. 212 

The Abductor and the x\bducted 169 

The Bar 227 

The Brain and the Nerves 135 

The Cigarette 185 

The Cost of War 244 

The Crime of Nerves 176 

The Engineer's Remedy 228 

The Great Cure for Trouble is in the Environment 112 

The Lawyer 215 

The Liquor Bill for 1905 229 

The Mormon Peril , , . 260 

The Nation's Drink Bill 156 

The Necessity of a New Political Party 83 

The Negro in Politics 54 

The Negro Problem 1 50 

The Prohibitionists for Reform 255 

Theory How^ to Reform 41 

The Past, Present and Future Woman 195 

The Politics to Make the Man 168 

The Problem of the Hour 97 

The W^ak Link , 36 

The Wealth is in the Soil 50 

Tobacco Heredity 192 

What do I Owe the Other Man? 128 

What I Live For 269 

What Is Success ? 303 

Why I Was Induced to Write This Book 304 

What San Francisco Learned 233 

Whipping Post Essential 75 

Why do We Cease to be Courteous ? 210 

Will Religion and Politics Consistentlv Mix? 166 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 
AGE OF REASON. 



As mankind has advanced from a state of savagery and barbar- 
ism, and as we have advanced in the mechanical world through 
every branch of industry by the rejecting of those things which do 
not tend to perfection. As God is perfect in all His works and as 
man was created by God, he could not do otherwise than to imitate 
his Creator in advancing into a state of perfection. Unless those at- 
tributes are interferred with by those who possess a spirit of ani- 
mal-like nature, thereby a higher development of the human race 
can only be accomplished by the rejecting of those things which 
tend to debase the mind and defile the body. And as we have ad- 
vanced in art and science, why not, in the 20th century, endeavor 
to use methods to advance the human race, in comparison to our 
advancement in the mechanical and business systems of the world ? 
This being the author's motive, realizing that happiness to the 
human race is the greatest aspiration to secure the same. This 
being man's nature, he is often led ignorantly or otherwise to 
possess the jewel of happiness, and in the attempt causes manv a 
shipwreck of an immortal soul. 

In comparison as the mariner by his knowledge fails to follow 
his chart, causing shipwreck, there are thousands of lives which 
become stranded along the shores of time, left only to be cherished 
in the memory of those who loved them. 

Owing to the many rocks and shoals through the journey of life 
and the absence of danger signals, I was constrained to write this 
work that it might prove a beacon-light to the misguided youth 
of this age. 

''Believing That the World is Growing Better." This being the 
subject of a sermon delivered by Dr. Fishburn, of Camden, 



lO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

N. J., taking for his text Isaiah 54: 13: "Instead of the thorn 
shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up 
the myrtle tree ; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an 
everlasting sign that shall not be cut ofif." Near the close of his 
discourse he declared the saloon would never be removed by vote ; 
that eventually evil will be displaced by good. This assertion 
causes one much thought as to how evils are to be overcome by 
good, and especially how the saloon, the greatest of all evils, which 
many accept the saying of the Doctor that the world is growing 
better, thereby putting many at ease in Zion, whereas the writer 
sees the great need of alarm. 

During the same week, on Thanksgiving evening, in Broadway 
Church, Camden, I was amused, as well as entertained, by Sena- 
tor J. P. DoUiver's lecture on "Public Virtue." In speaking of 
the many evils in this country and their overthrow, the speaker 
declared the remedy to be the conversion of the people to be 
brought about by a wave of religious enthusiasm which would 
sweep over the country. Because of these many and various opin- 
ions as to how the overthrow of these evils can be brought about, 
these words have been uppermost in my mind: "Come, now, and 
let us reason together." Let us consider humanity as it is, as it 
always has been, and always will be. The Scripture asks : "Can 
the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots ?" implying 
that it cannot be done. No more can human nature be changed. 
Human nature can be compared like unto a chameleon, whose 
color changes with the vegetation upon which it lives, which, in 
the wisdom of God, was so created as to escape from being detec- 
ted. In diagnosing the human race we will grant every man the 
nrivilege of recalling his own experience, thus enabling him to see 
himself as others see him, revealing the many times he has 
changed from where he should have remained, true to principle, 
and has also acted falsely to escape detection. 

THE OTHER MAN'S FAULT. 

After recalling all his mishaps and wrong doings he will doubt- 
less blame his condition on some one else. On this principle a 
whole nation becomes involved in the question of cause and effect. 
Every person must balance his account by this rule. But the 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. II 

accounts of some will not balance because they are not treated with 
reason. They possess the same spirit as our first parents in the 
Garden of Eden, who blamed others for their sins. 

Because of the incident of eating the forbidden fruit, the whole 
human race is in a condition of sin to-day ; but to use reason, man 
could not do otherwise than he did, for God had created him, with 
all the inherent qualities he now possesses, and when the oppor- 
tunity for doing something unlawful was presented to him, in the 
form of temptation, he gave way to it and partook of the fruit. 
As soon as he was called to account for eating the forbidden fruit, 
to help Adam out of his difficulty, Eve suggested that the blame 
be laid on the serpent. 

This clearly shows that our first parents must have been created 
with all their human attributes for a purpose, as our Creator, who 
knows all things, must have known that Adam would do as he 
did in partaking of the fruit. As I have stated before, the first 
impulse was to deceive, and all the human race has been 
affected ever since by Adam and Eve's sin. How can we expect 
the human race to be other than deceitful, in order to accomplish 
its purpose, when all its wants are purely physical and animal? 
God could not do otherwise than to make man so, excepting the 
soul, which was created in the image of God. 

WHAT MAN IS. 

Therefore, he is created by God and the spiritual part of man 
is of the nature of God. It is evident that the question is an im- 
portant one. All attempts to deceive otherwise have proven fail- 
ures ; therefore, the subject should be given much consideration, 
as there is so much depending upon it concerning man's happiness 
in this world and the world to come, as from childhood to old age, 
the greatest desire is to have pleasure and happiness. This being 
one of the strong attributes given to procure the same, it is to the 
person what the yard-stick is to the merchant. Every act that one 
does terminates in this desire to procure happiness, and this pre- 
dominating attribute is the one great factor in governing the 
human race. Man being possessed of such inherent qualities, it 
is impossible to expect him to rise above his surroundings, and by 



12 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 01^ REASON. 

having a tobacco store on one corner and a saloon on the other, 
he cannot rise above their level in the social scale, because of the 
effects they produce on the human race. 

By removing these two evils which stand open to man and boy, 
that they may not go on contracting evil habits, we have removed 
the cause and the effect will be, as proven by physiological re- 
search, the improvement of the human race. Then the question: 
"Is life worth living?" would no longer be debatable. Instead, 
life would be more appreciated by the removal of these evils, and 
man would have greater cause to praise his Creator and would 
not have to resort to things which debase his spiritual nature in 
endeavoring to secure happiness. Their removal would largely 
help him in seeking church relations. The church demands that 
a member give up everything which tends to defile the body. 
This would condemn the tobacco user who would no longer reject 
the claims of the church, but enter heartily into all the measures 
devised by good men to assist others to live in accordance with 
the example of Christ Jesus. 

TENDENCIES. 

The tendency of man has been to depart from the standard of 
the church in all ages. There is an impulse in every heart to do 
a kind act rather than an injury. This same trait is known even 
in some animals. As a general proposition, man would prefer to 
make money honestly rather than dishonestly, and at first he is 
naturally inclined to be good. These other and baser inclinations, 
are part of man's physical being, and they are ruled by the mind 
to secure happiness. The whole world has been involved in a 
bondage of habit by the use of tobacco and intoxicating liquors, 
and if man does an evil act, it is because he is overcome by the 
animal nature. As it is supposed, there is much happiness and 
comfort in the use of these poisons, yet to strike a balance of the 
human race, more people are rendered miserable than happy 
because of these vices. The truth of this statement can be verified 
by mathematical calculation, based on the statistics of New Jersey. 
It is stated, on good authority, that three-fourths of all the inmates 
of the State prisons, jails and almshouses are there because of 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 3 

these vices, and the same cannot be answered more intelligently 
than the clipping inserted: 

THE NATIONAIv RAVAGES OF ALCOHOL. 

Under the above title Rene Bache contributes a most note- 
worthy article to Pearson's Magazine for January, profusely illus- 
trated. We make some quotations from the article which we 
believe will be of especial interest to Gazette readers : 

''Though the evil wrought by opium in China has been much 
advertised, dispassionate observers who have had opportunities 
for judging, declare that the drug derived from the poppy, harm- 
ful though it be, does but a small fraction of the mischief that is 
caused by the poison which the ingenious Caucasian distills from 
corn, grape-juice, and other convenient vegetable materials." 

"Drink costs an immense amount of money in indirect ways — 
particularly for the crime which it engenders. It is reckoned that 
fifty-three per cent, of all arrests made in this country are for 
drunkenness and disorderly conduct caused by liquor. To watch, 
gather up, and care for these ''drunks" and "disorderlies" involves 
an expense of about $10,000,000 per annum. Of all convictions 
for criminal offenses sixty-three per cent., or thereabouts, are in 
cases where liquor in one way or another has been accountable. 
When it is considered that there are eighty-three thousand per- 
sons confined in the prisons of the United States, and that it costs 
$25,000,000 a year to maintain them, it will be perceived that the 
tax which drink levies in this shape upon the community at large 
is decidedly grievous." 

"There is no question of the fact that insane asylums all over 
the world are to a great extent recruited from the class of hard 
drinkers, and from their offspring and descendants. Twenty-one 
per cent, of the lunatics now under restraint in the United States 
have an 'alcoholic history,' liquor either being the sole or contrib- 
uting cause of their misfortune. Paresis, which of late years has 
become so much more common, is a typical alcoholic brain disease. 



14 THE TWEI^TIETH CENTURY AGE 01? REASON. 

It is noticeably frequent among brokers and actors, who, as a class, 
are much addicted to constant 'nipping.' " 

-JC >!; ifC ;ji ijc >j< ijc y(C 5j< ijC ^1< ^ ^ 

"Much is said of the vast capital employed in the manufacture 
of intoxicants ; but it should be realized that this money is used 
largely in destroying what other capital produces. Unlike other 
great industries, brewing and distilling make no contribution to 
the general wealth ; furthermore, they give work to very few per- 
sons, relatively. To produce the $1,500,000,000 worth of beer and 
liquor consumed annually in this country requires the labor of 
only 44,417 men, whereas the same amount invested in the manu- 
facture of boots and shoes would employ 416,000 ; or in hosiery 
and knitted goods, 458,683 ; or in the manufacture of cotton, 300,- 
000 persons.'' 

"The indirect losses by drink run up to an enormous aggregate. 
They are reckoned on the basis of census returns, as follows : 

"Loss of labor of 568,472 persons in liquor trades, $283,236,- 
000; loss of labor of 700,000 drunkards, $175,000,000; loss in 
work of 2,138,391 moderate drinkers, $222,392,664; loss of 66,- 
660,792 bushels grain destroyed, $33,330,396 ; loss of time and 
sickness caused by drink, $119,368,576; loss to employers by 
drinking workmen, $10.000,000 ; support of 83,899 persons inca- 
pacitated by drink, $16,779,800; support of 59,110 paupers, made 
such by drink, $5,911,000; loss of labor of 59,110 paupers and 
vagrants, $17,733,000; support of 29,481 prisoners, $3,948,300; 
loss of labor of 39,481 prisoners, $11,844,300; cost of police, pros- 
ecutions, etc., $15,000,000; total indirect cost and loss from drink 
in United States, $924,544,036." 

* * * >!; ^ -'fi ^< >:< ^ ;|c ;]i ^ ^ 

While this is true, at the present time it does not take any 
account of the many thousands that have been imprisoned prior 
to this report. Nor does it tell how many persons would be in 
prison if they had their just deserts, but the number would exceed 
those who are imprisoned at the present time. And this is but a 
sample of human nature. The brain is the man and all other 
adornments of the body are due to the eye, and the lust of man 
and for greed in animal life. This shows the great importance of 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 5 

having those who make our laws in order to govern human nature 
wisely men who will pass laws of such a nature that the weak as 
well as the strong will not be subject to environments which 
make them candidates for prisons and almshouses. In other words 
they should legislate against the conditions which produce these 
distressing results — the saloon and the tobacco stores. 

The physical effect of these two evils are, without question, 
responsible for three-fourths of the crime, misery and sorrow of 
the present day. 

Without going into an elaborate explanation regarding the 
physical and evil effects of tobacco and liquor, would say that 
those desiring to be further informed should read a book entitled 
"The Monitor." because of the many theories as to how the saloon 
should be controlled. 

To give the public more extended knowledge of the enormity of 
the tobacco habit, I inclose a report of its annual consumption : 

No. cigars greater than 3 lbs., per 1000 $6,707,471,863 

No. cigars less than 3 lbs., per 1000 690,844,907 

No. cigarettes less than 3 lbs., per 1000 3.226,682,261 

No. cigarettes greater than 3 lbs., per 1000 8,421,610 

No. lbs. of snuff 20,157,580 

No. lbs. smoking and chewing tobacco 328,650,710 

Cigars nearly doubled in eight years. 

The cost of this useless waste is the smallest part to be con- 
sidered, in comparison with the physical, mental and moral effects 
it produces, not only on the young man, but on the coming genera- 
tion, as the man who uses tobacco may not be affected as much 
by it as his oft'spring. When we consider that like begets like and 
that the mother is compelled to inhale and absorb tobacco fumes, 
the deteriorating effect on the unborn is beyond question the 
worst feature of the case. Tennyson has said : "If you wish to 
bring about a reform you should begin it before the child is born." 

To establish the truth of this statement I would say that any 
and every influence must be either a positive benefit or a positive 
injury, as there can be no middle ground. For all of these reasons 
fathers and mothers should give this subject more consideration 
than they do. The evil effects of tobacco are supposed to be 
taught in the schools by use of Mrs. Hunt's book on ''Narcotics," 



l6 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

and also in a book by Mrs. Bladesdell, but this education is often 
neglected because of political influence, which is also responsible 
for much of the non-enforcement of the cigarette law. States 
have passed anti-cigarette laws which prohibit the sale of this 
destructive article to minors, but the are not properly enforced. 
Much could be said regarding this subject after the manner of 
the parable of the tares, for while one has endeavored to sow 
good seed, the tares have sprung up and choked it, for the seeds 
of the graft have such a deep root in human nature that to remove 
it we meet with the same opposition that we do in fighting the 
liquor traffic. Therefore, a further continuation of the tobacco 
habit can be prevented only by prohibiting the cultivation and 
growth of the weed by adverse legislation. Its evil effects are so 
far-reaching that the attractions, congenialities, affection and re- 
spects between man and wife are often destroyed. Our Creator 
never intended they should be. It is not reasonable to expect that 
such a distasteful and filthy habit will create a great love and re- 
spect for a man in those who love cleanliness. 

This may be the main cause for the many divorce cases. To 
inform the public on this subject, I quote the following statistics. 
The figures given are for the year 1902. The latest statistics to 
be had show that only nine States keep good records on this sub- 
ject. These are as follows : 

STATE. YEAR. NO. PROPORTION. 

Maine 1902 905 i to 6 marriages 

New Hampshire 1901 482 i to 8.3 " 

Vermont 1902 316 i to 10 " 

Massachusetts 1902 1610 i to 16 " 

Rhode Island 1902 493 i to 8.4 " 

Connecticut 1902 354 i to . , " 

Ohio 1902 4276 I to 8.8 " 

Indiana 1902 3552 i to y.d "' 

Michigan 1902 2418 i to 11 " 

The total number of divorces granted from 1890 to 1900 was 199,868. 
There is plenty of food for thought and action here. 

It has been shown conclusively that the use of tobacco and 
liquor has a tendency to demoralize the human race. The physi- 
cal effects lead directly to insanity and weakness of the mind. 
Thousands of crimes are attributable to the use of tobacco, but 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 7 

the most dangerous effect is in creating a desire for alcoholic 
liquors, as the tobacco habit is the first great cause of intemper- 
ance, and, doubtless, is the cause of more than half the drunken- 
ness to-day, as ninety-nine out of every hundred start their down- 
ward career with the use of tobacco. This condition which a 
person brings upon himself should not go unnoticed by those who 
are in responsible positions, such as the railroad companies, etc. 
Opiates cause a person to become less alert to danger and causes 
the heart to beat eighteen times more per minute than is normal. 

If there was any way of tracing the occasion of many of the 
railroad accidents, there might be hundreds added to this one 
cause. We might speak of the recent Harrisburg disaster, where 
the explosion took place. They were known to be tobacco users, 
and there was a lack of alertness on the part of someone. 

The list of casualties by fire must also be taken into considera- 
tion. The insurance companies reported that the great Baltimore 
fire w^hich caused $150,000,000 loss was directly due to dropping 
a lighted cigar through a cellar window. Doubtless the amount 
of loss from this cause annually in the United States is double 
or even triple the amount of loss in the Baltimore fire. This 
enormous financial loss is a great item to be considered, as every 
dollar's worth of tobacco and liquor consumed is totally wiped out 
from the world's wealth, unlike any other commodity in use. The 
principle is the same as if a man were to build a house and then 
set fire to it and burns it up. In like manner the value of the 
labor used to manufacture tobacco is lost when the tobacco is con- 
sumed. 

PUNISHING ITS FIRST USE. 

Then is it not an evil to use our fertile soil to produce such a 
poisonous weed ? History of the past use of tobacco tells us that 
when the habit was first started the Popes, Urban VII and Inno- 
cent XI, and many of the priests, declared smoking to be a crime 
and its effects injurious to the human system. Smokers were 
severely punished by the rulers of Europe and measures were 
taken to abolish the weed. It is evident that the people in those 
davs considered the use of tobacco a crime. It is none the less 



1 8 the: twentieth century age of reason. 

now. Because it has grown to be such a large commercial busi- 
ness is no legitimate excuse for its existence. That is the more 
reason to oppose it, as manufacturers in other lines of goods 
usually produce something that is useful to the consumer. The 
whole tobacco business should be abolished as soon as possible. 
The longer it continues, the greater number of prodigals this 
nation will have. 

People always try to supply a demand : They will even en- 
deavor to create a demand by enticing a boy to smoke cigarettes, 
knowing that if he should attempt to smoke strong tobacco it 
would produce a nauseating effect, and the beginner would give 
up the attempt. Merchants who live by these vices know that to 
perpetuate their business they must keep new recruits 

It is useless for me to say that those who manufacture and sell 
cigarettes do not know that it is injurious to the boy's health, and 
injures his mental faculties and prevents the development of his 
growth, yet they do it that they may live off of their victims. If 
this is true, is it not a second degree of cannibalism, as every 
pound of bodily stature is taken from the boy is just that much 
cannibalism. The vender has lived from the poison he sold the 
boy. This is where the second degree of cannibalism comes in. 
If the boy is injured mentally, is it not the same as crippling him? 
A man or boy crippled mentally is worse off than if crippled in 
his limbs. 

To illustrate : Suppose you see a man of intellect walking with 
crutches and you should trip him up and cause him to fall. He 
would get up and go on and transact his business ; but if you crip- 
ple a man in his brain, he has to be helped by some one, as will be 
shown by further reading. How far the physical injuries extend 
in the action of those who use the poisonous weed can never be 
told. 

The writer can recall many crimes committed by cigarette 
fiends, some of whom have committed suicide or murder in order 
to escape detection. I will make mention of a young man by the 
name of Woodward, of Camden, who was known to be a cigarette 
fiend. He influenced two of his chums to eat candy which he had 
put poison in, resulting in the death of both. They were sons 
of a prominent leader in the political world. Then is it not time 



the; twentieth century age of reason. 19 

for the fathers and mothers, and those who are interested in the 
development of the coming manhood to reason together and try 
to prohibit the further use of these two narcotics, tobacco and 
liquor ? 

An English school master offered a prize to the boy who would 
write the best composition in five minutes on the subject of 
''Habit." Following is the prize essay : "Well, sir, habit is hard 
to overcome. If you take off the first letter it does not change 
'abit.' If you take off another you still have a 'bit' left. If you 
take off still another, the whole of 'it' remains. If you take off 
another, it is not wholly used up. All of which goes to show that 
if you want to get rid of a habit you must throw it off altogether." 
Men will do almost anything in order to obtain a few puffs or 
chews of tobacco to quiet their nerves. It is a fact that whatever 
evil habit controls a man's better judgment reduces his manhood 
and strikes at the safety of the nation. It places a large per cent, 
of the nation's demoralized beings at the disposal of any corrupt 
political machinery and their votes are made corners like some 
monopoly or trust by the saloon. 

Besides lessening his own self-respect, a man is made poorer 
by the use of narcotics, just as a person would become poorer by 
fire consuming his uninsured property. From observation this is 
a true comparison of the force of habit. This truth can be applied 
especially to those who use tobacco, but it is almost useless to 
attempt to persuade one to abstain from its use. 

While advice is the cheapest thing in the world to give, and 
often is not appreciated, nevertheless, it is an important considera- 
tion, when we think that habit is controlling our nation's destiny. 
As time passes we see the same need for Jeremiah's lamentation 
as of old, "The ox knoweth his master's crib and the ass his 
owner, but my people will not consider." We can only repeat the 
same sentiment in this day and generation regarding the dire 
effects of injurious habits. People have become accustomed to 
regard them as inevitable and look on them with indifference, 
while the ravages go on. 

Those who have become victims to the habit regard the subject 
in the same way. This I cannot show to the public in a better way 
than by quoting a reply made to Robert Ingersoll's eulogy "To 
Whisky." 



20 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

THE DIREFUIv WORK OF WHISKY. 

"I send you some of the most wonderful whisky that ever 
brought a skeleton into the closet or painted scenes of lust and 
bloodshed in the brain of man. It is the ghosts of wheat and 
corn crazed by the loss of their natural bodies. In it you will 
find a transient sunshine chased by a shadow as cold as an Arctic 
midnight in which the breath of June grows icy, and the carol of 
the lark gives place to the foreboding cry of the raven. 

"Drink it, and you shall have 'woe,' 'sorrow/ 'babbling' and 
'wounds without cause,' 'your eyes shall behold strange women/ 
and 'your heart shall utter perverse things.' Drink it deep, and 
3'ou shall hear the voices of demons shrieking, women wailing 
and worse than orphaned children mourning the loss of a father 
w^ho yet lives. Drink it deep and long, and serpents will hiss in 
your ear, coil themselves about your nevk, and seize you with 
their fangs ; for 'at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth 
like an adder.' For forty years this liquid death has been within 
staves of oak, harmless there as purest water. I send it to you 
that you 'may put an enemy in your mouth to steal away your 
brains.' And yet I call myself your friend." 

To impress more fully the influence the tobacco and liquor 
habits have on the manhood of our nation, the writer observed on 
a Sunday afternoon that out of fifty men and boys passing down 
the street, forty-five of them were smoking. Also twelve hundred 
people passed in and out of a certain saloon between 3 A. M. and 
5 P. M. This run, however, was largely due to the closing of the 
saloons in Philadelphia and to the back-door entrances of the 
Jersey saloons. Philadelphia and Camden are not worse than 
other places. This fact should give pause to those lovers of 
Iiumanity who hope for the God-intended higher development of 
the race. 

"WHAT WILL THE HARVEST BE?" 

This sad picture causes one to wonder what the harvest will 
be if those whose business it is to create victims of habit continue 
their nefarious work. They know that if they fasten on a youth 
-a bad habit, thev can suck from him his life-blood like a leech. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 2l!. 

While the public may be deluded regarding the dire effects of 
these two narcotics on our nation, because of the social side of 
human nature, it is all one great robbery, as there can be no 
legitimate business unless the purchaser gets value received for 
his money. The strong hold of these two evils is a combination 
of greed and cravings of an abnormal appetite. For this reason- 
there are many excuses made for the existence of these evils, but 
it IS surely not natural for a man or a boy to desire either. The 
condition of the human race regarding these habits is solely due 
to greed. The creating of a demand for intoxicants by training 
the boy to smoke and drink has become a great and skillful busi- 
ness wherein many are enriched by all that is sacred for the vic- 
tim is left in a worse condition than though he was hypnotized. 
The condition of a larger portion of the male population affords 
a large amount of theorizing and experimenting in order to know 
how to reform the victims of bad habits. To some, it may appear 
like a game of ten-pins. One setting them up in the right way of 
living, and the other knocking them down again. 

DIFFICULTY OF REASONING. 

The subject of this article is: "Come, let us reason together." 
This is a difficult thing to do because these two evils are of great 
commercial importance. There are so many people interested in 
the business, either because of employment or becaus of appetite 
that there will always be a strong protest against the abolishment 
of the use of these narcotics. This only proves that the almighty 
dollar is supreme when it comes to a question of self-sacrifice for 
the good of others. 

Because tobacco is supposed to be a luxury, it is treated with 
much consideration, but this only shows that there is greater need 
for reason. Let us offer some comparisons and quotations to pre- 
vent one from falling a victim to the habit. First, I would ask 
the boy why he should desire to contract such a habit. The writer 
knows from experience, for he almost became a victum to the 
habit himself, and it is his opinion that the boy smokes because 
he sees men smoking. He permits his imitative nature to fully 
control his curiosity, believing that pleasure and happiness are 



■2.2 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

found in the use of the weed, and he is loath to miss such a luxury. 

He proceeds at once to make the attempt to learn to smoke, 
often despite the protests of his parents, whom he should obey 
and respect. Parents should reason with the boy to prevent him 
from contracting such a filthy habit. They should ask him why 
he should do anything from which he could not receive any ben- 
efit. The tobacco habit is a positive injury, as is shown by the 
fact that laws have been passed to prohibit the boy from smoking. 
The boy has no right to injure himself any more than he has a 
right to injure some one else. He knows that tobacco fumes spoil 
his breath, the ashes burn his clothes, and the smoke makes a 
•chimney of his nose, and he should abstain. 

The contraction of this habit is like swallowing some germ 
which becomes secreted in his stomach and has to be fed so many 
times a day until the whole system becomes nervous for the want 
of a stimulant. The use of tobacco causes the heart to beat more 
often and the blood to flow more rapidly than is normal, and un- 
less one keeps stimulating his system he feels a constant need for 
it, like the opium eater. There is not on smoker out of ten who 
does not regret having contracted the habit. They would gladly 
leave it off if it were not for the unpleasant effects the attempt to 
refrain produces on the system. 

If the boy thinks it is more manlike to smoke, he is greatly mis- 
taken, as there is not one lady in a hundred who does not wish he 
would let the nasty habit alone. By abstaining he would add much 
to his refinement and find favor in the lady's eyes. To prove this, 
the boy might be asked how much he would appreciate a lady 
friend who smoked cigarettes. What is the use of anything, if 
there is no benefit derived therefrom? This is also an expensive 
habit, as can be shown by figuring up the cost of so many cigars 
a day. 

Cost of Smoking Three Cigars a Day at Five Cents Bach. 







Principal. 


Principal 


and Interest. 


20 to 25 


years 


$ 273.75 


$ 


313-95 


20 " 30 


a 


547-50 




745-75 


20 " 35 


" 


821,25 




1,314-72 


20 " 40 


" 


1,095.00 




2,081.16 


20 " 45 


" 


1,368.75 




3,110.16 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 23 



20 


' 50 ' 


20 


' 55 


20 


' 60 ' 


20 


' 65 ' 


20 


' 70 ' 



Principal. 


Principal and Interest 


1,642.50 


4,494-14 


1,916.25 


6,353.87 


2,190.00 


8,655-02 


246375 


12,215.36 


2,737-10 


16,216.37 



The tobacco habit has secured such a hold upon the men of 
this country that the annual consumption of tobacco in the United 
States alone is over seven hundred million dollars. The cost is so 
great that if this money were spent in building houses at $2000 
per house over three hundred and fifty thousand houses would be 
erected in the course of a year. It is on the same principle as if 
one were to burn up that many houses each year — for all the ben- 
efit that he would receive. If one smokes $10 worth of tobacco, he 
might just as well burn up a ten-dollar bill. The boy smokes, not 
from choice nor from desire, but because he possesses two ele- 
ments of nature which appeal to his animal being as in the monkey 
and the hog. The boy appears man-like and he imitates the fine- 
looking man — not the "bum." The boy does not reason in the 
matter. The "bum" he sees may at one time have been a fine- 
looking man, and the boy's admiration and imitation of the noble 
and beautiful is natural. This is where he is caught and becomes 
one of the many thousand who regrets ever having contracted 
the habit. Because of the greed element of his nature, he fears 
someone else will enjoy something he will not, and so he is anxious 
to obtain it. These two traits of character cause him to contract 
the habit. Phrenologists tell us that man's whole being partakes 
of some animal traits, with the exception of his spiritual nature, 
which is guilded by reason, and bids him not to injure himself. 
The gift of reason was given to man above the animal : the latter 
has a sense of intuition which warns him when he is injuring him- 
self. Animals cannot be induced to take poison into their system, 
but man is supposed to have reasoning power enough to refrain 
from making a fool of himself by placing the end of a roll of 
tobacco in his mouth with fire on the other. This is a great field 
for woman and she should occupy it in view of the fact that she 
possesses greater power than the armies of the Republic. Well 
equipped with knowledge and reason, she should pattern after a 



24 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

certain religious denomination, by instilling their principles into 
the boy's mind the first seven years of his life, they have secured 
him to their faith for all itme. To accomplish this mission W. C. 
T. U. workers should do personal work in the homes of many 
mothers who do not belong to their union. They should meet 
with their mothers and boys and induce them to take one of these 
booklets and become instructed in the proper way to make im- 
pressions. By the study of the contents, of this work much greater 
good might result than by holding meetings and obtaining speak- 
ers to agitate the subject of reform, and, by so doing, the appear- 
ance of a self-admiration society would be avoided, and this prac- 
tical manner of working would have more to show in the way of 
results and to inspire those who are desirous of accomplishing a 
greater work, we will insert the following verses : 

"It isn't the thing you do, dear, 

It's the thing you leave undone, 
That gives you a bit of heartache 

At the setting of the sun. 
The tender word forgotten, 

The letter you did not write, 
The flower you did not send, dear, 

Are your haunting ghosts to-night. 

"The stone you might have lifted 

Out of a brother's way ; 
The bit of heartsome counsel 

You were hurried too much to say ; 
The loving touch of the hand, dear. 

The gentle, winning tone, 
Which you had no time nor thought for, 

With troubles enough of your own. 

"Those little acts of kindness 

So easily out of mind. 
Those chances to be angels 

Which we poor mortals find ; 
They come in night and silence. 

Each sad, reproachful wraith, 
When hope is faint and flagging. 

And a chill has fallen on faith. 



THK TWENTIETH ce:ntury age; 01? re:ason. 25 

"For life is all too short, dear, 

Ami sorrow is all to great, 
To suffer our slow compassion, 

That tarries until too late ; 
And it isn't the thing you do, dear. 

It's the thing you leave undone. 
Which gives you a bit of heartache 

At the settmg of the sun." 

I need not tell you of the demand for better education in the 
homes of the people, and to bring this education about we should 
possess the spirit of the missionary who goes to preach the gospel. 
-While all cannot be missionaries, there is a field of work at home 
which, if properly occupied, will produce great results. The first 
downward step of the boy is his first cigar or cigarette. There 
are millions of fathers who, even if they are users of tobacco 
themselves, would be glad to have some one instruct and advise 
how to prevent his sons contracting the tobacco habit, or induce 
them to abstain if they have already contracted it. This life is 
made up of joys and sorrows, and when a mother sees her son 
using the poisonous weed and detects his breath heavily laden 
with the fumes of liquor, she doubts whether her son will ever 
be the man she desires him to be. His condition brings only 
despair and sorrow because of his puny condition as the result of 
habit contracted. 

How can the mother expect much happiness, which consists 
not in the possession of her son, but in acts and deeds? The 
same can be said of many people and institutions. 

These opportunities to do good are many and the workers are 
few\ Should not all who have a spirit of helpfulness use the op- 
portunities when afforded, knowing that the powers of evil are 
using every means of warfare in their battle and are constantly 
marshalling their forces in their strong hold for political pur- 
poses ? 

This condition prompts philanthropists and benefactors to 
unite in building Y. M. C. A.'s, W. C. T. U.'s as forts to stay 
the onward march of those who would capture the youth of the 
land. We should rescue them from an evil way. The minds of 
all good people should be stored with useful knowledge with 



26 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

which to teach the coming generation the folly and inconsistency 
of our so-called social customs by which the boy of to-day is cap- 
tured. The only course for man or boy to take when he is asked 
to indulge in poison is to refuse, to show himself manly and strong 
enough to decline rather than partake. By so doing, he breaks 
the chain of custom and people can no longer say, 'Like father, 
like son." And as long as opportunities are made, the habit will 
be contracted, as smoking is not so much the fault of the many 
millions who indulge in it. They do it because of associations, 
customs and usage, and because they see others smoke, but it is 
an unnatural habit to the human system and were it not for the 
prevailing custom of smoking, they would not know of it and 
have no desire for the vice. If there should be a law passed en- 
forcing the prohibition of smoking, the custom would soon die 
away. If such a law cannot be called sumptuary, for sumptuary 
applies to the essential, not to the abnormal, to the natural man as 
God has created him, not to the degenerate man made so by ap- 
petite. A law passed to prohibit food for the sustenance of the 
body could be termed "sumptuary," but if a man feels no natural 
craving for tobacco and liquor, then it is obligatory on our law- 
makers to pass prohibitory laws and prevent the people from in- 
juring themselves. 

Neither could it be called depriving anyone of their personal 
liberty, as there cannot be any personal liberty to any individual 
unless he is on an island by himself, as your right stops where the 
other fellow's nose begins. The obnoxious odors of tobacco or 
liquor or the fumes of some chemical works which a thousand or 
a million of people are compelled to endure, like the chemical 
fumes in Camden which come from the works in Philadelphia. 
The people have become so accustomed to these perfumes that 
they think it is Philadelphia's natural smell, which was likened 
to a newly married couple who came to the city and were not ac- 
customed to gas, and on retiring blew the light out without turn- 
ing it off. Shortly the escaping gas was detected and the landlord 
traced it to the bedroom. He asked the bride what she thought it 
was. She said she thought it was the man's natural smell, but she 
was married and had taken him for better or for worse, and, 
therefore, she must endure it. 



THE TWENTIICTH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 27 

When a majority of those in authority make laws for the bet- 
terment of mankind and quit trying to improve on Christ's way 
of absolutely abolishing an evil, instead of licensing it, then the 
chain of custom will soon be broken and the use of tobacco and 
liquor will be followed by a new regime and a higher develop- 
ment of mankind, as our Creator intended. 

Dr. Kirkbride, in his report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for 
the Insane for 1849, stated that ''two cases in men and five in 
women were caused by the use of opium, and four in men by the 
use of tobacco." "The use of tobacco," continued he, "has, in 
many individuals, a most striking effect on the nerves, and its 
general use in a community is productive of more serious effects 
than is commonly supposed." 

"Old men and young men, beware, beware. 

A pipe of tobacco is Satan's snare ; 
Not surer the net for birds is spread, 

By the pipe's sweet note to capture led, take 
When the whiffs which the lovers of smoking 

Are sure to lead to the Stygian lake." 

"What a blessing it would have been to mankind if all men had 
shrunk from this plague of the brain, as did the first Napoleon. 
One inhalation was enough. In disgust he exclaimed, 'Oh, it is only 
fit for the swine. My stomach turns. It is a habit only to amuse 
sluggards.' 

"Alcohol is classed ai^iong the poisons by medical writers on 
poisons. I do not know of an exception among physicians. It is 
ranked among poisons from its effects upon the body analogous 
to those of the other poisons. What is said of the effect of alco- 
hol must be true of all other doses, large or small, although the 
effect of very minute doses may be very imperceptible. Arsenic 
may be administered in doses so small as to produce no apparent 
ill effects, yet no one doubts that arsenic is a poison. If a person 
dies of delirium tremens, it is not the last glass that kills him, but 
every dose or glass he has taken in his life has conduced to the 
result." — Dr. Reuben D. Miissey, Professor of Anatomy and Sur- 
gery of Dartmouth College. 



28 THE twe:ntie:th century age of reason. 

"Smoking tobacco weakens the nervous powers, favors a 
dreamy, imaginative and imbecile state of mind, produces indo- 
lence and incapacity for manly or continuous exertion, and sinks 
its votary into a stage of carelessness or maudlin inactivity and 
selfish enjoyment of his vice/' — Dr. J. Copeland, P. R. S. 

*'It is our deliberate opinion that the unsatisfactory recitations 
and consequent failures at final examinations, so injurious to the 
interests of this establishment, are to be attributed, in a great 
measure, to nervous derangement caused by the common use of 
tobacco by the students. It becomes our duty to recommend some 
stringent measures to correct this practice. — Medical report of the 
Msc of tobacco by the cadets of the U. S. Naval Academy. 

HOW TOBACCO AFFECTS THE NERVES. 

The general use of tobacco diminishes nervous action. It is a 
substance which enters into the system without furnishing any 
needed element. It is in the body, but not of it. In sufficient 
quantities it has a particularly paralyzing effect upon the nerves, 
which control the muscles of the heart and is capable of weaken- 
ing the heart's action to such a degree as to cause spasms and in- 
sensibility. 

Tobacco leads to uncleanly habits and to carelessness of the 
comforts and rights of others. Smokers and chewers befoul with 
their tobacco the air which others must breath, and eject upon 
steps, floors and sidewalks its offensive juice. 

ALCOHOL AND ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS. 

An appetite for alcoholic liquors with a weak will with which 
to control it, insanity, idiocy and epilepsy and other diseases of 
the brain and nervous system are frequent results inherited by 
children from the drinking habits of parents. The late Dr. 
Willard Parker said of such cases : "When alcoholism does not 
produce insanity, idiocy or epilepsy, it weakens the conscience, 
impairs the will and makes the individual the creature of impulse 
and not of reason. 

Children inherit from their parents nerves weakened by the use 
of tobacco as well as of alcohol, and the lives of thousands of per- 
sons are thus made miserable. Usually, the first drink and the 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 29 

first smoke are found to be very disagreeable, but sometimes an 
inherited appetite shows itself and the sweet breath of the child 
becomes foul with the whisky and tobacco which cannot be kept 
out of its way. Beginning with this unnatural appetite, habits 
are speedily formed which make life a burden to men and women. 
Dr. B. W. Richardson says of the evil effects that result from 
the use of alcoholic liquors : "In whatever way the physi- 
cian turns his attention to determine the persistent effects of 
alcohol, he sees nothing but disease and death, mental disease and 
mental death, physical disease and physical death." But great as 
these evils are, they do not stop with the health and character of 
the life of the drinker. We say a child looks like his father. That 
resemblance may not be confined to the face alone ; the brain, 
nerves and other organs may be as much like the father's as the 
face. Alcohol will shrivel the nerves and brain of the drinking 
parent, weaken his will, sear and blunt the conscience, and give 
his a craving appetite for more. It will make him coarse, cruel 
and brutal. As the face of the child may look like the face of the 
parent, so the child may inherit any of these conditions that alco- 
hol has produced in the parent. 

DR. GLEASON ON TOBACCO. 

(Copied from the works of Dr. Gleason, who is the author of 
''Everybody's Own Physician" or ''How to Acquire and Preserve 
Health"). 

"Of all habits, that of using tobacco is perhaps the most be- 
witching and fascinating to its votaries. When we come to con- 
its relaxing and debilitating effects, it is wonderful how any 
its relaxing and deliberating effects, it is wonderful how any 
human being could become addicted to its use. And we cannot 
account for the fact, that while in other respects great attention 
has been devoted to the improvement of the public health and with 
the most gratifying results, in regard to cleanliness, ventilation, 
diet, and the use of intoxicating beverages, yet the use of tobacco, 
owing perhaps to its more attractive and fascinating effects, is on 
the increase and threatens more than anything euse to undermine 
the health and destroy the constitution of the American people. 



30 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

"When distilled at a temperature above that of boiling water it 
yields an enipyreumatic oil which proves to be one of the most 
subtle and virulent poisons, one or two drops of which will kill 
a cat or dog in five minutes. Its active principle, called nicotina, 
is far more fatal to animal life than arsenic, opium or corrosive 
sublimate, and is only equalled in its deadly effects by prussic acid. 
When used habitually in small quantities like opium it acts as a 
powerful sedative, and calms and soothes the irritability of the 
brain and nervous system ; and when used in larger quantities it 
acts as a nauseating and debilitating emetic and in still larger 
quantities as a virulent poison. A piece of the dried leaf of 
tobacco as large as a dime, when given to a child a few years old, 
will soon produce vomiting, followed by the most alarming weak- 
ness and prostration of the nervous and vital forces. A few grains 
of the dark oily matter easily obtained from any old German pipe, 
when placed on the end of a dog's tongue, is almost immediately 
destructive of life. 

''Now as these statements are facts, how is it that so many can 
use tobacco habitually without destroying life almost instantly? 
In answer to this inquiry it may be said that only a small quantity 
at a time is taken into the system. Nature has given the human 
being great powers of endurance, and under the law of toleration 
we are enabled to gradually increase the dose of opium from one 
grain to a single drachm, and gradually increase the dose of tar- 
tar emetic from one grain to sixty without causing vomiting ; to 
gradually increase the amount of whisky from a tablespoonful to 
one gallon a day without causing great intoxication ; and, finally, 
to begin with a small quantity of tobacco each day, and to gradu- 
ally increase it day by day, until at last we becom.e accomplished 
chewers and can chew a plug a day. 

"Although the habitual use of these well-known poisons may 
not prove suddenly destructive of human life, they do not the 
less certainly produce their legitimate poisonous influence upon 
all the various organs of the body, causing indigestion, nervous 
debility, epilepsy, apoplexy, palsy, idiocy and insanity. It is one 
of the most subtle and penetrating of all poisons, and when used 
habitually its active principle is readily absorbed into the blood 
and soon penetrates all the tissues of the human body, completely 



T IIK TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 3I 

saturating the whole system with its pecuHar properties, so that 
we may detect its odor in the breath and its presence in the pers- 
piration, urine, and all the secretions of the body. 

''The writer once knew a young clergyman in the interior of 
Pennsylvania, the sheets of whose bed were as yellow as saffron 
every Saturday night from the tobacco exhaled through his skin 
during the week. His room was like a sort of smoke-house, and 
his whole body was perfectly dried and smoked in the fumes of 
this disgusting weed until it was as yellow as a smoked herring. 
We are told by Dr. Lawson, late surgeon general of the United 
States army, who accompanied General Scott to Mexico, that he 
often observed that when the wolves and buzzards came upon the 
battlefields to devour the slain, they would not disturb the bodies 
of those who had chewed and smoked tobacco until they had con- 
sumed all the fresh ones among them. And yet there are thou- 
sands of presumptous young chewers and smokers who expect 
that refined young ladies, or rather angels, as they sometimes call 
them, will be willing to love and cherish all their lives what even 
buzzards reject as nauseating and unwholesome. 

''When we look at any company of Americans assembled for 
any public purpose, judges, lawyers, legislators, and even minis- 
ters, what a number of them are marked as the victims of this 
vicious and loathsome indulgence of chewing and smoking 
tobacco. Their pallid countenances, relaxed muscles, yellow skins 
and lips, languid steps and listless postures attest its terrible 
effects upon their constitutions and upon their health. Follow 
these unhappy men to their private homes, and how many of them 
will be found complaining of loss of appetite, pains in their chests 
and backs, violent and dangerous palpitations, with indigestion, 
which daily increase until some dangerous malady steps in and 
hurries them to an untimely grave. Indeed, the number of our 
most gifted citizens, our most brilliant poets and scholars, who 
voluntarily commit suicide in this way is perfectly appalling. I 
have often been struck with the fact so often noticed in our pub- 
lic papers, that when any one dies suddenly of disease of the 
heart it is almost always a man ; and when you inquire into the 
particulars of his life you will find him nearly always a user of 
tobacco. 



32 THE TWENTIKTH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

"Of all the various methods of using tobacco, smoking is per- 
haps the most common and fashionable, more especially among 
our young men. When it is used in this way, the subtle poison is 
drawn into the lungs with the air which we breathe and exposed 
to a vast surface of mucous membrane lining the delicate air- 
cells, estimated to be more than seven times as extensive as that 
which covers the whole outside surface of the human body and 
is there absorbed into the blood. When this subtle poison is thus 
absorbed, instead of purifying it vitiates the blood, which is sent 
to all parts of the system, producing an excited and feverish action, 
more especially in persons of a nervous and delicate organization. 

"But the most injurious form in which tobacco can be used is 
chewing. When one or two drachms of this powerful narcotic 
are taken into the stomach, it will often prove fatal ; and when it 
is taken into the mouth in a smaller quantity and remains there 
for a considerable time, a part of its poisonous properties will be 
absorbed into the blood, producing the most enervating and debil- 
itating effects upon the stomach, brain and nerves." 

If tobacco were not a poison, it would not produce nauseating 
and sickening effects. Our Creator in his wisdom made man with 
such physical senses and feelings that when he inhales or takes 
poison it produces pain and he will not take more. Some people 
kill themselves by the use of tobacco iii one year, some in five 
years, and some never. God, in His wisdom, knew that maa 
would be unwise in some respects and so made his constitution 
that notwithstanding long continued indulgence in the use of 
tobacco the individual would survive a long time. 

There is, however, no disagreement on this subject among the 
women and reformers, as, for instance, Frances Willard, Harriet 
Beecher Stowe and Mrs. Downs. The second named said that the 
liquor traffic must be abolished. "Blessed be they who help." 
With the emphasis of the power of necessity behind them — the 
strongest possible motive for men to act — all good citizens should 
assist in banishing the liquor evil. All that is required is that 
each should do his part. God never does anything for us that we 
can do for ourselves. Therefore, we should all see the importance 
of helping to bring about a change in the social manners and cus- 
toms of the times. While some mav sav that if these two obnox- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 33 

ious customs were abolished people would only resort to other 
things as bad; to such I would say that there could not be any 
other two evils conceived of by man or the devil worse than these 
two of tobacco and liquor. With the removal of these man will 
find just as much happiness and pleasure in life, and he will not 
be lured by the low pleasures of the dives, in which is found much 
'of the crime and vice, for bad habits make demand for low forms 
•of pleasure. 

LOCAL OPTION. 

The luxuries and pleasures of the world, however, are to some 
people what the motive power is to an engine. As the yardstick 
is to the Commonwealth, so is it to some people to measure hap- 
piness with. Our forefathers freed themselves from the English 
yoke that they might enjoy the liberties of a free government. 
The same desire was shown in recent years by the Cubans and 
Filipinos, and the Russians to-day are seeking to be free from 
the tyranny of the Czar. Just so the larger part of the people of 
the United States are seeking to be free from the bondage of ap- 
petite, and thousands of those who have become victims of an un- 
natural appetite would vote openly to have the saloon removed. 
This truth was illustrated by a local option election several years 
ago, when five counties out of six voted for no liquor. The one 
voting for liquor was Cape May. This being a seashore resort, it 
is naturally supposed the tourists are thirsty and have money. The 
native resident naturally, as in all past ages, sold principle for 
money, and the liquor oligarchy knowing this, gave their consent 
for the Legislature to allow the same test in Los Angeles, Cali- 
fornia, where the influence of catering to the tourists defeated the 
temperance forces, which defeat made a victory for the liquor 
forces, causing the people to believe we must endure it. To in- 
form the public that sentiment is against this traffic, we call atten- 
tion to the vote of Massachusetts on this subject. For in- 
stance, that State gave 249,000 votes for no license. This was a 
greater number of votes than the whole National Prohibition 
ticket received. But the Czar of the liquor traffic knows that so 
long as he can keep both great political parties alive, his business 



34 'ftlE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

will be perpetuated. Indeed, this statement was made by an old 
brewer: "Gentlemen, let us not make fools of ourselves, but draw 
results from both parties." 

It is very evident that as long as the tobacco business and the 
liquor business are kept alive, so long will the happiness of the 
home and the nation be menaced, and so long will the people have 
to strive to free themselves from these insidious evils, as past ex- 
perience shows that all attempts to regulate these evils have but 
proved a fizzle. It is a thorn in the flesh to millions of people. 
While there are millions who wish these evils wiped out, political 
parties and political influence have sidetracked the issue, and 
from present appearances the people will continue to be led 
astray until the end of time. This shows the importance of keep- 
ing up a political party pledged to the cause of temperance. The 
apathy of human nature regarding these evils and the ignorance 
regarding their harmful efifects, together with the lust for the 
spoils of office — if left to the moral forces found in either the 
Republican or Democratic party — would naturally wither away 
like Jonah's gourd when a heated election rolls around. 

PROHIBITION PARTY. 

Suppose the Prohibition party were forced out of existence, 
where have we any political force left with which to educate or 
prompt either of the old parties to do anything towards temper- 
ance or reform ? The Prohibition party is so small now that both 
the other parties are at their ease, because they know that, although 
there is much prohibition and temperance sentiment, it cannot be 
concentrated in the form of votes. They have no fears now, but 
if at any time there should be two million and a half Prohibition 
votes cast, the same number as the saloons control, (allowing ten 
votes to each saloon) they would then pay as much attention to 
the temperance question as they do the saloon, and it would com- 
mand more influence than the liquor forces do now\ Because of 
the moral sentiment and power of the church they would doubt- 
less be induced to pass some local option laws to quiet the tem- 
perance people. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 35. 

When General Fisk was nominated for governor, twenty thou- 
sand votes caused such a consternation in pohtics that the old 
party gave consent to have a local option contest, and by so doing 
drew the wanderer back to the fold, and then repealed it at the 
next session of the Legislature. 

When the two old parties become so corrupt that they do not 
have confidence in their own men, then they select a man like 
Berry for State Treasurer of the Prohibition party, nominate and 
elect him. Even then, however, they do not give the honor and 
credit to whom it is due, for fear it would be a boom to the Prohi- 
bitionists and a blow to the Democratic party. This is a sure 
way to break up the Prohibition party. A man elected in this 
manner would be at sea to know how or by what party he was 
elected, but he would know that the Prohibition party could not 
have done it. The liquor men know that the Anti- Saloon League 
is not a party, and judging the present by the past this organiza- 
tion w^ill be of little service to the cause of temperance until it 
shall nominate men for office under the name of anti-saloon; 
otherwise, it will meet the fate of the Prohibitionist, as they have 
no spoils of office to inspire the workers and keep up contribu- 
tions. It is like a child whose parents are unknown. Few people 
are interested in him, his name is only sentiment. The essential 
thing is to keep up the Prohibition party until a better organization 
comes to their relief, as on every election day the ballot stands 
before the eyes of every voter, and he cannot vvcU remove from his 
mind what it represents. If it should die for the want of support 
there would be many cold days before another will appear, 
as they have crushed it. It is only in keeping with the principle 
of which they were ready to sacrifice Christ, not because he 
was an imposter, but because the principles He represented in- 
terfered w^ith the way people wanted to do business, and a nation 
cannot afford to ignore the principles in politics any more than 
to abolish the principles of the Ten Commandments. The whole 
decalogue is prohibitory. "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep 
it holy"' is one of the hardest Commandments to enforce that 
comes under a prohibition law. Both Republican and Democrat 
officeholders are having a hard time to enforce it. If the Prohibi- 
tion party would have been successful by uniting with no license 



.36 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

in the last Fall election, then they would have had a hard time 
to enforce the laws, especially if the Republican and Democratic 
parties still remained ready to receive the spoils of office. Past 
experience shows that men in power are ready to do anything 
to make the prohibiting of the sale of liquor a failure, as the rab- 
ble have been ready to crucify the church by pointing out the fail- 
ure in attempting to make it impracticable. By referring to the 
failure of the Maine law and others, to be honest, they should 
not judge and condemn them until they have a fair test. But as the 
saying, "A chain is no stronger than the weakest link," so is a 
party when elected from the lowest office to the highest. The law 
would be enforced if the Republicans and Democrats holding 
office desire to see a reform, but they are like the boy who wanted 
the cake and the penny too, or the boy who wrote out his prayer 
and pinned it on the head of the bed and, instead of saying his 
prayer, pointed to it and said, "Lord, these, are my sentiments." 

THE WEAK LINK. 



As simply the mighty dollar overbalances principle, prohibition 
€an only be compared to a dividing line in two armies, each fight- 
ing to prohibit the other from controlling. Whether it pertains to 
the liquor traffic or any other matter in politics and to obtain pos- 
session. These acts only prohibit the other fellow from enjoying 
something he cannot. This principle is as old as the human race ; 
by the prohibiting of some commercial commodity, there is not 
much difficulty as the mighty dollar enters into the question, but 
with the liquor traffic it has three obstacles to overcome. First, 
the political influence it controls. Second, the influence the large 
amount of money that is derived by some. Lastly, the physical, 
w^hich the same makes the strongest fort to shield itself from the 
enemy, that it is a feeling against its encroachment on society and 
combining the physical effect by securing its devotees by the 
abnormal condition, and with others a belief in its medicinal quali- 
ties and those who are attempting to fight the contending army 
that represent King Alcohol. They carry their purpose by the 



THD TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 2>7 

large sums of money to defeat those who oppose them, and because 
of such influences and the lack of money to contend against them, 
the contending forces can only be compared to those that were sent 
out as spies to go over and view the promised land. They came 
back and said there were giants there. 

Then there is another class which might be likened unto Jonah : 
they prefer to go to Tarsus instead of Neneveh, and they are wait- 
ing for the Lord to provide some way of procuring dry land, be- 
cause of so many giants. These is another class of people who 
possess the spirit of Caleb and Joshua, and the spirit of the Gideon 
band. Therefore the failure of the Prohibition party is largely 
due to so many possessing the spirit of Jonah when there should 
be more who have the spirit of Caleb and Joshua. 

In beginning a reform, it would be business like to begin it 
where and with those who make our laws and enforce them, and 
not expect the church people to do it by creating a religious de- 
mand, as they are but part of the body politic. You can no more 
expect the church to produce a reform than you can expect a man 
to lift himself by his own boot-straps. Put a defective tgg in 
water and you can as soon expect the water to purify the ^gg as 
to purify politics by the anti-saloon movement as it has no spoils 
to its organization as an incentive to help destroy the liquor party. 
The Scripture says, "Come out from among them and be ye sep- 
arate." When Senator Dolliver gave his recipe to cure the politi- 
cal ills by conversion, we would naturally suppose he professed 
to be converted. Now, suppose he voted the Republican ticket, 
thereby voting for himself, yet, that party has allied with it the 
greatest destroyer of good government that can be conceived of, 
and presuming he voted for himself, and to make amends and 
perhaps relieve his conscience, he has espoused to himself the 
bill known as the Hepburn-Dolliver bill, preventing the transpor- 
tation of liquor from one State to the other, and especially his 
own State. We believe in giving honor to whom honor is due, 
and if every Senator should do the same, and including the Pres- 
ident of the United States, we would soon have every State under 
the prohibition law, but if this is the way that the liquor traffic 
is to be abolished we will console ourselves by the verse in the 
hvmnal : 



.38 THK twentie:th century age of reason. 

"God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform, 
He plants His footsteps on the sea and rides upon the storm." 

And all other reformers who think differently as to how the 
saloon is to be abolished will find consolation in the following : 

"Since right is right, and God is God, right the day must win, 
To doubt would be disloyalty, to falter would be sin/' 

To doubt seems to be one of the most common things belonging 
to the category of the English language, and when one of many 
years' experience in business and otherwise knows the many dif- 
ficulties and disappointments because of dishonesty and disloyalty 
to singleness of purpose to do right, it seems natural to doubt 
that evil will ever be overcome with good. Some act as the result 
of ignorance, others act because of the love of money, office or 
honor. It appears that many of those who enter the political 
arena are subjected to a moral change, politics being too strong 
for their moral purpose to act in keeping with the principles of 
the Golden Rule. And the influence of man upon man is supreme 
above the moral sphere, and because of this inherent quality in 
man many would-be reformers are led to doubt and to falter. 
Because of the strict adherence to parties by the preachers and 
bishops, they who are not members of any church treat the offense 
of the moral law with indifference. They believe that there is no 
future punishmient and that the enforcement of the civil law has 
more to do with reforming the thief than any of God's laws, as 
many believe more in a present punishment than in a future, and 
this point is where the church has lost its power. 

REFORM MOVEMENTS. 

Any reform movement must come largely through the princi- 
ples by which Philadelphia has been redeemed, brought about 
l)ecause of necessity, like a business man who, finding he has a 
thief in his employ, exerts the power he has within himself. It 
takes business men to get rid of the grafting element in society 
or governing bodies. In this great movement the moving power 
must have been policy, for we have no account of conversion or 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 39 

any religious ways. It was the fear of the law and ostracism, and 
we can only give credit to the old saying: "A wise man changes 
his mind." When the Citizen's party, or the reform party, put 
into their platform, "No license to the saloon," and prohibits all 
sale of tobacco, then we may hope for a general reform. As it is 
now, it was more of a selfish affair to preserve the good name of 
the city and reduce its tax rates. What the world needs is a re- 
form for the good of others, for the safety of mothers and chil- 
dren, as many fathers by their obnoxious breath cause unhappi- 
ness and have become despicable and reduced to poverty through 
strong drink and do not have the power to resist temptation. The 
writer saw by the papers that many on Christmas who went to get 
a turkey spent their money for liquor, some pawned their turkeys 
and some were locked up with theirs and forgot they had bought 
one, but thought the jail warden had made them a present of it. 
While on this subject I will insert this clipping: 

From the Camden Posf-Telegraiu of March 29, 1906: 

"James Clark, a carpenter, has not been of much use to his 
family for some time past, judging from the story told bv his 
wife in Police Court this morning, when Overseer of the Poor 
E. E. Jefferis had him arraigned before Recorder Stackhouse on 
a charge of non-support. 

"Clark said he was willing to do right by his family, and had 
worked all summer. 

" 'What summer, last summer,' asked Recorder Stackhouse. 

" 'Yes, sir.' 

" 'How about last winter?' 

" 'I worked steady all winter until it rained here lately.' 

"Overseer Jefferis stated that Clark had been on a spree for six 
weeks and had not drawn a sober breath in that time. 

"Mrs. Clark said that her husband had not given her a cent in 
five weeks and said he carried things out of the house and even 
pawned his clothes off his back and gum shoes off his feet for 
drink. The other day he tried to sneak her talking machine out 
to raise rum money, but she caught him in the act and took it 
away froni him. 



40 THi; TWISNTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON, 

"Monday she gave him lo cents for carfare, supposedly to go to 
\vork, but he jumped off the car when he thought he was out of 
her sight and spent the dime in a saloon around the corner. 

"She gave him 50 cents to get some medicine for the baby, and 
he bought whisky with it instead. He took the pledge in the 
morning and was drunk at night. Threats were something terri- 
ble and he said that before he would work he would rot behind 
the bars and 'let the bugs carry him out of the keyhole.' 

"Mrs. Clark said she had to borrow $15 on her furniture, so 
pressed was she by her husband's negligence. 

" 'Where did you borrow the money ?' asked Recorder Stack- 
house. 

" 'On Chestnut street, Philadelphia, and had to give $24 for 
$15, payable in twenty weeks, and besides got a notice threaten- 
ing to seize my furniture if it was not paid back on time.' 

" 'Pretty steep interest to pay, $9.' 

"Recorder Stackhouse made an order directing Clark to pay 
his wife $5 a week, and in default of a bond for $300 to guarantee 
its payment, was committed to jail." 

From the Philadelphia North American of February 4, 1906: 

Socialism and the divine rights of elected rulers were touched 
on by Cardinal Gibbons in his monthly sermon at the Cathedral 
to-day. He said : 

"Good order, nay, the very existence of society, requires that 
some are destined to command and others to obey. Where this 
order is wanting, chaos, confusion and anarchy will reign. 

"As long as the world lasts, some men will be rich, others will 
be poor, some strong, others weak, some talented, others of dull 
comprehension. Some will be enterprising and industrious, others 
will be apathetic and indolent. 

"The most mischievous and dangerous individual to be met 
with in the community is the demagogus, who is habitually sow- 
ing broadcast the seeds of discontent among the people. 

"He is disseminating the baneful doctrine of socialism, which 
would bring all men down to a dead level, would paralyze indus- 
try, and destroy all healthy competition. The demagogue is blam- 
ing fortune and society, blaming the rich for the condition of the 
poor and the laboring classes. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 4 1 

''He has not the capacity to discern that after all due allow- 
ances are made for human energy, this varied condition of society 
must result from a law of life established by an overruling Prov- 
idence. 

''Obey cheerfully those whom Providence has placed over you. 
Remember that all legitimate authority comes from God. Every 
one in lawful command, whether he be civil Magistrate or military 
officer, or employer, is clothed with divine authority, and is God's 
representative. 

"In submitting to those set over you, you are obeying not man, 
but God. It is this principle that ennobles obedience ; for obedi- 
ence is not an act of servility to man, but of homage to God. 

''Be content with your position in life. While earnestly aiming 
to better your economic and social condition, do not be devoured 
by disquietude and envy toward those who are more favored than 
you are. Earthly happiness and real dignity do not depend on 
the accumulation of wealth and honor." • 

THEORY HOW TO REFORM. , 

There are so many theories regarding how to reform that it 
would seem reasonable to begin where the one great evil began, 
which was at our National Capitol. This condition arose when 
our government consented to raise revenue on liquor and tobacco, 
which was prompted by the Civil War, as is stated m history. 
That w^as July, 1862, when President Lincoln opposed the meas- 
ure and threatened to veto it, saying that if we do it we fasten 
the liquor traffic on our nation, but on being assured that the 
measure was temporary for war purposes he signed the bill. 
There never could have been a truer word spoken than when he 
described it as "Fastening itself to the nation like barnacles to a 
ship." This act opened a great opportunity for men of all nation- 
alities to engage in the nefarious business, and this act no doubt 
has caused the larger part of the drunkenness of to-day. 

The consumption of liquor has increased since 1880 from ten 
gallons per capita to twenty gallons, and crimes have increased 
in proportion. This condition is a natural growth of one evil 
begetting another, because the evils of slavery produced a war, a 



42 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

war brought need of revenue, and the need of revenue caused the 
estabhshment of 250,000 saloons. The saloon was unknown until 
that time. We believe in the honesty of purpose of Lincoln, but 
he, like all other human beings, was liable to be deceived, and for 
expediency sake things which terminated in wrong. Perhaps this 
act caused him to make the expression as credited to him: "You 
can fool all men some time, but you cannot fool all men all the 
time." 

LINCOLN'S POSITION. 

If Lincoln had held true to his conviction and had raised the 
revenues in some other way, instead of involving the whole nation, 
this act alone would have immoratalized his name and the result 
before God would have been far greater than freeing the slaves 
or the restoring of the Confederate States to the Union. Then 
he would have been doing what should have been done, and the 
great financial panic and the depression of business would have 
been avoided during Cleveland's administration. 

The only way to start right is for the government to dissolve 
partnership with the liquor traffic, as will be seen by reference to 
the book entitled "The Monitor." This dissolution would save 
taxpayers $16.00 for each dollar received from the license, and 
the nation could wxU afford to be taxed otherwise to raise rev- 
enue for the running of the government. The liquor traffic has 
become a nuisance to business houses, also manufacturers ; and if 
you once convince taxpayers of the enormous expense they are 
subjected to, they would become desperate like the old maid who 
became desperate for the want of a man, and, being advised to 
go to a certain tree and pray that the Lord would direct her to a 
man, and while praying fervently an owl perched upon the tree, 
was disturbed by her petitions, gave one of his customany "Whoo. 
Whoo." The maid mistaking it for the voice of the Lord, re- 
plied, "Anybody, Lord, so that it is a man." Believing that the 
commonwealths are about in the same desperate condition in de- 
siring to know what to do with the liquor traffic, and are ready to 
say, "Any way, Lord, so that we can be relieved of the many dire 
effects of which the nation is compelled to suffer," and manv of 
the best citizens are so disgusted with the political conditions now 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 43 

obtaining, because the saloon is controlling from the lowest office 
to the highest, and, up to the present time, since our government 
went into partnership with the liquor traffic, there has not been 
a President who has made mention of it as being a legitimate bus- 
iness, although the drink bill of the nation is over $1,200,000,000. 

ROOSEVELT'S SILENCE AND HIS POWER. 

{Taken from The Monitor). 

One would have supposed that Roosevelt would have made 
mention of it, as one of the industries, it being such a source of 
revenue, especially after having 1,000,000,000 persons petitioning 
him, pleading that he would say something about it in his mes- 
sage. When he was governor, he said : ''The liquor traffic is the 
greatest of all evils." It is also reported that he does not desire to 
be President again, and one would have thought that he would 
not have been afraid of the 250,000 saloons and the votes they 
control. These conditions remind one of the darkey who, being 
caught in a thunder storm, became anxious to find his way home. 
Between the flashes and hard peals of thunder he cried, ''If it 
please thee. Lord, give us a little less thunder and more light." 
If Roosevelt expects to run for President in 1908 there is need 
of more light. If we can rely on the old custom of telling by 
straws which way the wind is blowing, and there are so many 
unexpected things that have happened with men in offices, high 
and low, that many are now seeking for light. When Lincoln 
made a mistake in his great desire to abolish slavery, that he even 
consented to the raising of revenue by the liquor traffic, which 
has grown to be a greater evil than slavery ever was, for the 
slavery to the drink habit has been fastened upon more than a 
million of people and 100,000 die annually from its effects. 

BOOTH, GUITEAU, SCHOLGOZC. 

This habit controls the assassin, and no doubt Lincoln was as- 
sassinated by Booth who was known to be intemperate, and Gui- 
teau who assassinated Garfield was a victim to the drink habit, 
and Scholgozc who assassinated McKinley, was known to be a 



44 THii: t\ventie;th century age of reason. 

frequent patron of his father's saloon, and by some in their views 
regarding the dispensation of God's own ruHng power, beHeve 
in the wisdom it was the best thing for the nation to remove Mc- 
Kinley, and one must naturally suppose it was essential to have 
saloons in order to inspire an anarchist to accomplish his purpose. 
These mysterious things happening afford opportunity for 
someone to pray for light. When we consider the many attempts 
to reform ending in failures and of nations that have been anihila- 
ted, as was Greece and Rome, because of the many evils prac- 
ticed, and when we consider that for the past six thousand years 
humanity has been struggling to reach higher attainments, then 
remember that we are still retaining this great evil in our Repub- 
lic should we not fear lest history should repeat itself. It be- 
hooves every citizen who is a lover of good government to be as 
patriotic as those who volunteered their services during the 
Civil War. 

The great problem of to-day is to know how to cause those in 
office to make laws and repeal them, so that the commonwealth 
may be made better and that those who pay taxes may not be put 
to expense by making extra contribution for protection against 
robbery and theft, and for organizing law and order societies. As 
it now is, people are constantly reminded of crime, murders, 
thefts and robberies and wonder whether their families will not be 
compelled to suffer their share of the crime and sorrow. It is ap- 
parent that it must be endured by someone. 

GOVERMENT AND POVERTY. 

You may ask how can the government prevent them from being 
poor, if they will not help themselves. They are willing to do so, 
but are ignorant as to how to do it and make a decent living. To 
do this, they must be educated against forming bad habits. Then 
there should be various schools and work-shops where they can 
learn trades. While all of this may cost large sums of money, 
would it not be better than to appropriate such large sums of 
money for the Panama Canal and the River and Harbor bill ? 
Would not such appropriation be of more value to our nation than 
the same amount spent in building the Panama Canal? As I 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 45 

have said, "The whole human family measure life by the amount 
of enjoyment. Would it not make hundreds of thousands happier 
and start people in a better way of living by appropriating money 
to educate the people? By doing so it might not prevent them 
from other improvements by doing both. It certainly would have 
a beneficial effect to thousands, while the building of the Canal 
would effect a few only. It is like the young man who took his 
lady friend out riding; his name was DuBois, and she lisped. 
When he came to the toll-gate, he said he must take toll by either 
a hug or a kiss. When he attempted this she said, ''Oh Mister 
DuBoth." So let the government do both, and not only educate 
the boys, but the girls as well, as they have much to do in mould- 
ing and making man a more worthy being. Man at his best is 
poor enough. By educating the girls it might prove as helpful 
as by the recent marriage of Miss Annie and Mr. Ben ; when the 
young bride was asked how she liked married life, she said she 
was Annie-mated and her husband was Ben-efited. 

CARNEGIE AND EDUCATION. 

There seems to be a general awakening to the need of educating 
the masses, as is shown by the large sums of money donated for 
educational purposes by Mr. Carnegie, who has recently given 
$10,000,000 (in all $140,000,000). It is said he has no desire to 
die rich. At the pace he is going, it is not probable that he will. 
He wants to find pleasure in a Scriptural phrase, "It is more 
blessed to give than to receive." We must not forget to make 
mention of John D. Rockefeller, and recommend many to follow 
his example in the way of giving, as he recently gave $10,000,000 
for educational purposes. There was some criticism upon his giv- 
ing, especially to the missionary cause. This may have been due 
to jealousy on the part of those who didn't have the money them- 
selves, or were not recipients themselves, nor constituted trustees 
in the disbursement of it. But whatever his motive, he gave it on 
general principles, not as when someone asked the darkey what 
he was to be hanged for, he said, ''Boss, I don't know% sir, but I 
guess it is on general principles." If more of the giving was done 
that way, the whole nation would be better off. 



GRAFT AND THE CIVIL WAR. 

The greatest opportunity for graft began with the Civil War 
and has been growing to such an extent that we wonder and are 
amazed, and ask what the next great exposure of steaHng will be. 
There is one great evil, on the part of the Government, for which 
it is solely responsible, that is, in the management of our finances 
during the Civil War, and it has continued to make its mark, until 
the whole nation is passing through an ordeal of depression. It 
gave thousands of people opportunity to take advantage of their 
unfortunate neighbors in the forclosing on property which, in 
many instances, might have been deferred and the owners allowed 
to retain their homes, but it was impossible to prevent a deprecia- 
tion in value from war prices and it took nearly thirty years to 
reach a solid financial system and many suffered until the result 
was heartrending. 

Many thousands who purchased property in the first period of 
the war, and in the following year it became impossible to main- 
tain the purchase price because of the plentifulness of money bor- 
rowed by the government. This rendered everything precarious 
by causing an inflation of more than double its value, gold being 
the standard for money. Everything had to come to its worth 
by a financial representation of possessions. All of this depres- 
sion of business and money panic could have been avoided, if 
there had not been on the part of some the grafting propensity. 
Let is see how this condition might have been prevented. By 
continuing the financial system as prompted and adopted by Pres- 
ident Lincoln and the issuing of green-back paper money instead 
of borrowing from other nations. The giving of bonds by bor- 
rowing what money we could at home and then issuing green- 
backs. By this we, as a nation, would have avoided the raising 
of revenue on liquor, thereby avoiding partnership with the same, 
and instead should have been treated as any manufacturer or per- 

46 



THK TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 47 

son owning real estate. What the government shotild have done 
was the continuance of issuing green-back money and making it 
legal tender for all debts, and instead of permitting national banks 
making the profit by the issuing of paper money and loaning it 
out to various people, the government could have loaned out to 
banks and private individuals, thereby, the government would not 
have been put to the expense of paying interest, as their own 
money which they issued would have drawn interest, and in 
twelve years, at six per cent., would have been the same as com- 
pound interest. 

But by the government borrowing money from banks and let- 
ting them issue it and then paying interest on these bonds, which 
the banks held against the government, it in turn made itself 
liable as security for the banks to the amount of money borrowed 
from the bank, theyeby paying double interest ; first, on the bonds 
and the money borrowed, which made great opportunity for graft. 
There is no excuse for this financial condition, as the wealth of 
the nation was fifty billions at this time, and if the government 
was not able to pay her debts by green-backs she would not be 
able to pay her bonds. If this financial system had been adopted 
and the government continued to issue its own money, as in the 
first, (so much per capita until the debt was paid) it would have 
been doing what it should have done and the great financial panic 
and depression of business during Cleveland's administration 
v\^ould have been avoided, and there never would have been the 
opportunity to make such a political campaign over the silver 
craze by the sixteen to one. It gave the old political parties an 
opportunity to conceive of some commercial thing to delude the 
people and as long as this continues the question of what should 
be done with the liquor and tobacco traffic will be side-tracked. 

The same spirit prevailed in the days of Judas Iscariot and led 
Jacob to buy his brother's birthright for a mess of pottage prevails 
to-day, and the people are brought to certain conditions and short 
dinner pails or depression of business, then the other party is 
most likely to win, and will be elected because of the condition 
growing out of an administration during the Civil War for the 
money panic of Cleveland's administration was the result of the 
war, by creating high prices, by the plentifulness of money. It 



48 TIIR TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

was only natural as everything must find its level. While much 
of hard times during Cleveland's administration was due to Re- 
publican's poor management, I feel assured that there is much 
credit given to the Republicans that is not due them, as they have 
been kept in power since the war as the result of their being suc- 
cessful. While the war no doubt could have been averted by pur- 
chasing the slaves before the war was declared, as money has 
bought everything since the history of human race, and if this 
had been done, Lincoln would have been a greater benefactor than 
he was, as a preventative always exceeds a cure. The same might 
have been said of McKinley. He could have purchased the free- 
dom of the Philippines instead of carrying on such an atrocious 
war. When Carnegie made it known that he would purchase the 
freedom of the Philippines for $20,000,000, the Republican gov- 
ernment became ashamed of the war they were perpetrating on 
the heathen and gave them their liberty. 

ROOSEVELT'S POWER TO PREVENT. 

But through his influence the nation is keeping up its philan- 
thropic reputation by making appropriations to help them to a 
higher ideal of living, but the good influence of the philanthropic 
work is overbalanced by the accompanying of many barrels of 
liquor and beer, and permitting the opening of saloons which 
President Roosevelt has in his power to prevent, the exportation 
or sale of liquors into Santiago and all army reservations, soldiers' 
home, Washington, D. C, but we are not expecting this to take 
place. Like the old lady who was told that by offering up a 
prayer, she could remove the mountain. On rising in the morn- 
ing she saw it was still there, and said, "It is just as I expected." 
As long as the Republican party is backed up by the liquor power 
and -the bishops, preachers, elders and laymen support that party, 
we need not look for any reform to come to pass, such as the 
nation needs, until a new party is elected to power for the pur- 
pose. A party which will adopt new methods of politics such as 
obtained in Philadelphia through the change of Mayor Weaver's 
political position that has produced a wonderful reformation and 
reform, and it would not be as autocratic to prevent people from 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 49 

^abusing themselves as it is to force anything on a people who do 
not want it, as the traffic is. 

Therefore, would it not be wise to act as a paternal government 
in a way that would keep those who have not the will power to 
stop injuring themselves. Certainly that would be as constitu- 
tional as it was when we passed laws prohibiting the Louisiana 
lottery from doing business in the United States. It has been shown 
impossible for the millions to control themselves, when such op- 
portunities are made like when the opportunities were made for 
the Gloucester race track and the Guttenberg; the gambling pro- 
pensities were so great they were compelled to prohibit them to 
protect the business interests of New ejrsey. Therefore, it is a 
<iuty of all those in official positions to make it easy to do right 
and hard to do wrong, knowing it is impossible to make anything 
politically right that is morally wrong. We believe there are 
thousands holding office, knowing that the results growing out 
of such administration are wicked and they are to be pitied, for 
they canot free themselves from the strong power or political in- 
'fluence, and thereby make themselves morally responsible. 

If those who are connected with the anti-saloon movement do 
not want to be allied with the Republican party, because they have 
deviated from the principles on which the party came into power, 
because of the agitation and desire to benefit the black man and 
their fear of doing that will prove injurious to the reputation of 
their party, which they love just as the young man whose affec- 
tions became so great for his lady friend that he said he loved her 
with all her faults, but the same being disapproved of by the 
mother of her son, she decided to make an attempt to break it off 
b)y telHng him of all his best girl's faults and after quite a long 
list of the same, she remarked, ''Now, what do you think of her?" 
He says, "With all her faults, I love her still." 

There are so many people who have no idea of what a govern- 
ment ought to do that they remain in their present condition and 
suffer millions to remain poor who might have homes of their 
own. It is estimated that there are ten millions who largely sub- 
sist on tbe earnings of others who would be greatly relieved if em- 
ployment could be furnished for these poor creatures. This con- 
dition can be changed by the government prohibiting any more 



50 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

raising of tobacco and distilling of liquor as a beverage. These 
two evils consume jointly $2,000,000,000 annually. If that amount 
was turned into another channel of trade, labor would be benefited 
about double and the time spent in the consumption of them 
would amount to as much as the two commodities themselves, for 
we know that time is worth that much in dollars. These two 
items would make or add to the individual themselves, therefore, 
you would add to the nation's wealth and save $4,000,000,000 to 
the taxpayers. An estimate of $16 to every one would make 
$2,000,000,000 more and thereby save as much in one year as the 
product of all the farmers, according to the figures given in the 
chronicle report of 1905. 

If Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gould and Vanderbilt combined had 
such a leech on them, it would soon bankrupt them, but when we, 
as a nation, all unite in footing the bill, go on sawing wood and 
say nothing, but pay these excessive tax bills, which are over 
double what they should be, because of these two named leeches, 
tobacco and alcohol ; and if this was all, it would not be so bad, if 
it were not for the sorrow, misery and remorse it produces in mil- 
lions of homes we might remain silent. 

THE WEALTH IS IN THE SOIL. 

We all know that Carnegie and Rockefeller's wealth is because 
of the richness of the earth, in minerals, oils, and their success is 
in having knowledge of how to make the most out of mother 
earth's products. Some might term it luck, but those who wait 
for luck will wait long. Each must learn to do his part, or he 
will be like a man who watches the clouds instead of sowing his 
seed — he will beg his bread in harvest. There is so much watch- 
ing and so little sowing that the laboring man is not considered 
as he should be. Labor is the bone and sinew of our nation, and 
the government should act in the interest of the working people. 
There has been too much attention paid to the commercial inter- 
ests and to the great success of the many, especially the million- 
aires, who number at the present time 5,000 in the United States. 
All this vast business goes largely to the credit of the Republican 
party, whereas the prosperity of the country is to a great extent 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 5r. 

due to the people themselves who have built up the nation's 
wealth, which at the present time is $100,000,000,000. While we 
know the push and thrift of the American people is great, we 
cannot give all the credit to the administration, for much is due 
to the fertile soil and the mines that are heavily laden with rich 
minerals, which the Creator has stored for man during the past 
100,000,000 years, and some of our millionaires could not help 
but become rich. When a person asked an Irishman what he 
thought of Niagara Falls, he did not think it was so wonderful 
because the water could not help running over. So with the oil ; 
it could not help running out and it made Rockefeller rich by his 
boring for it. W^hen you bore for it, you are doing your part, and 
nature does the rest. I might be better illustrated by the ex- 
perience of a gentleman during Cleveland's administration, who 
applied to him for a post-office in the rural districts and told 
Cleveland how he had built up the place, but Cleveland replied, 
"Hasn't the place built you up?" Has not the rich minerals and 
fertile fields built up the nation instead of the Republican party,, 
as all it had to do was to make the tariff high enough to protect 
its own people, and the nation could not help becoming wealthy. 
The worst feature is that the wealth is not properly distributed. 
The writer thinks he could make much better use of it than some 
of the millionaires by doing what he advises the government to 
do, that is, by educating the people, by having lectures, by the 
distributing of millions of booklets in families, and, if you could 
not get them to read them, hire them to read them by paying them 
well to do it. Thereby, the people would be inspired to a higher 
ideal of living and wealth would be more evenly distributed, as 
knowledge is power, and power without knowledge is dangerous. 
While it is not a disgrace to be poor, if you have been honest, but 
to be poor and dishonest is a most despicable life to live. But to 
be rich and dishonest is not the happiest, as happiness does not 
consist in what one possesses, but how one accumulates it, as we 
often hear of some people making restitution for their grafting 
and stealing, and many would like to relieve their conscience if it 
was not for the publicity of the act. While it is true, there is 
much pleasure and happiness in making money and spending it, 
if by securing it does not bring remorse and sorrow. There would 



52 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

be much more happiness attached to the making of money in busi- 
ness if it was not for the dishonesty with the larger part of man- 
kind. If you doubt this, ask the groceryman, dry goods man and 
the real estate man who have repairing and collecting of rents. 
There is, at a fair estimate, bad debts and non-payment of rents 
(taking Camden as an illustration) I find upon inspection of the 
records that were issued last year, between January i. 1904, and 
January i, 1905, 1974 summons in landlord and tenants cases. 
From my own observation, I have no doubt that fully two-thirds 
of these cases were the result of intemperate habits ; a loss to the 
real estate men or the man who owns property, an amount of $75,- 
000,000 annually in the United States. 

There are many causes that might be mentioned for 
this low moral principle and dishonesty, but space will 
not permit to name all, but it is largely due to the drink 
be mentioned for this low moral principle and dishonesty, but 
space will not permit to name all, but it is largely due to the drink 
and tobacco habit, and having such a cosmopolitan nation with 
the great influx of emigration of one million annually, and since 
the Civil War we have forced upon ourselves 10,000,000 of popu- 
lation with all the treachery, crudity and dishonesty imaginable, 
and given them the right of franchise which act alone is sufficient 
to corrupt any Republican form of government, because they make 
their own temptation to the politician by selling their vote, for 
few of them would ever vote unless paid. This mistake is of 
great importance to consider, as the writer being connected with 
the reform movement known and living in a city where a Com- 
mittee of One Hundred, lead by a former City Clerk, who is an 
adept in all the tricks in political corruption, has on every election 
day about seven hundred of these citizens housed away over night 
in slaughter houses, livery stables and saloons, and as soon as the 
polls were opened he ran them in like so many sheep, to aid in the 
election of the Republican party. And then came the reform 
movement which was a desperate effort on the part of all candi- 
dates in that party to get in office by buying votes, which proved 
a success in the Committee of One Hundred being elected, but the 
writer learning that the method of purchasing votes was to be 
adopted, refused to contribute to such a pool and by this refusal 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 53, 

he was solicited and asked to contribute a certain amount to the 
campaign fund, by paying a certain amount on some bill, which 
had been contracted in Philadelphia. Being anxious to win, I 
did so, only to be reminded of a Scriptural phrase, "If you sow 
to the wind, ye reap the whirl wind." which proved true, as many 
of the good citizens know. Such was the fate of the Committee 
of One Hundred, for the newly elected Mayor voted to sell. out 
the light and heating contract to the Machine and others sold out 
and went over to the Republican party, thereby giving their party 
the balance of power again, and the condition was as bad as at 
first. Again, and because of the saloon and colored vote the Re- 
publican party remains in power. 

But at the present time there seems to be a desperate effort to 
break away from the corruption practiced in the financial affairs 
of many large cities, of which Philadelphia is at the present the 
most conspicious. The difficulty of producing satisfactory results 
is simply in a nut shell because of the strong hold the liquor forces 
have in politics, and its past deteriorating eff"ect physically on the 
larger part of those who are running politics for a living, and the 
many would-be officeholders are making it difficult to get rid of the 
fees, thereby those who do possess the true spirit of patriotism 
and for self-protection from a financial loss, have become as an 
old saying, *'The drowning man will catch at a straw." There- 
fore, to break away from the long reputation of those who have 
the former management of city affairs under the name of Repub- 
lican administration, they gain their strong hold. The last re^ 
formers have started to pow-wow the sore by calling the reform 
movement the Lincoln Republican, thereby selecting for their re- 
demption the name of a man instead of putting their trust in a 
name which represents God's principles given at Mt. Sinai, and 
can only pin our faith to the Scriptural quotation, ''He that puts 
his trust in man, the same shall come to naught." Time may prove 
the prophecy as in symbol, making a pretence of reform, and in 
reality by following out the same principle of t he liquor trafiic 
which they deem wise to be neutral, thereby drawing results from 
both Democrat and Republican, and if successful, the same mode 
of politics will be adopted by saying nothing about the Hquor traf- 
fic in anv new reform movement. 



THE NEGRO IN POLITICS. 

And if the Democratic party should happen to be elected to 
power they would soon prove themselves incapable to cope with 
the mismanagement of the Republican party, thereby they are 
relegated to their fate of a quarter of a century, until the Repub- 
lican party becomes so unbearable because of its corruption, there 
is no hope for any change for the next quarter of a century. 
Whether we have the change or not, we have to submit to the in- 
evitable or Republican ruling in name, but in reality a monarchical 
government and possibly may be a quarter of a century before 
there is any other President other than a Republican one. 

When one considers the power this party has to elect its can- 
didates by the support of the colored race, the saloon and Trusts 
(for they .are the creatures of the Republican party) and there- 
fore they get what they want like unto the child of wealthy par- 
ents. And when a party takes in everything there is, it has be- 
come a Trust in itself. 

With some this may appear to them as an ideal government, 
and it might appear to many of the working class, who might be 
compared to an animal that has always been caged — the}' know 
of nothing better. How they should obtain a greater amount of 
enjoyment out of life they know not, because the rulers of gov- 
ernment have made it so. They are compromising on a question 
of rights, which condition has largely grown out of the negro 
race, when the constitution was formed, the question of slavery 
a political problem, and we insert the following: 

''a curse to the country/' 

To the Editor of the Public Ledger: 

The diverse views of your various correspondents upon the 
negro question are of considerable interest, and the question itself 
is one of grave importance to the American people. That the 

54 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 55 

negro has l^een a curse to our country cannot well be denied. That 
he was brought to America against his will cannot be denied, and 
that those who were not brought to America have remained sav- 
ages also cannot be denied. If these savages had been augmented 
by those unwillingly brought here and their progeny they might 
have massacred and eaten each other and saved us from the pres- 
ent and burning problem of their disposal, but "a condition and 
not a theory" confronts us. 

In the first place, the franchise should not have been given the 
freedmen ; but at that time of ill feeling it was rejoiced at as not 
alone punishing the South, but as furnishing a method for the 
usurpation of the government of the conquered territory. The 
measure did all that for at least a decade, and only those that ex- 
perienced the horrors of ''reconstruction days" know the infamies 
then committed upon a defenseless white population. In time the 
South grew strong again and threw off the yoke, and to-day the 
negro in the South is not as great a menace as he is in the North- 
ern cities and the Quaker communities, such as Wilmington and 
West Chester, for the simple reason that the States of the South 
have taken the ballot from him. 

The Southern man to-day sees a retributive justice in the condi- 
tions obtaining in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. The 
"underground railroad" was the method that fastened the negro 
upon his maudlin sympathizers, and he was not brought to Penn- 
sylvania unwillingly after the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
Now that he is better known, he does not seem to be as well liked 
except by a few of the traditional lovers of the black race, descen- 
dants, probably, of those that gloried in rescuing "the poor slave" 
from an environment much better fitted for him and where as 
slaves the negroes would have more surely impoverished the South 
than the war impoverished it. 

In present conditions the negro vote is the ruin of the negro. 
Crime goes unpunished, because the low politician — a creature of 
the one higher up — protects the criminal. The politicians see that 
negro policemen are appointed to beats in the negro localities, and 
all play into each other's hands. If any one wishes an object les- 
son let him visit Locust street by day or night from Eighth to 
Thirteenth street, or read the accounts in the newspapers of high- 



56 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

-way robberies so frequently committed around those central high- 
ways. 

The remedy is first, to take from the idle, vicious and ignorant 
(whether white or black) the right to vote. If this is done there 
will be no incentive for the politicians to protect them from the 
law. 

Second, to establish workhouses and to make those unwilling to 
work honorably do some form of manual labor. Instead of police 
protecting or ignoring criminals make them arrest every loafer 
and put him or her to work. This form of punishment will lead 
to a portion of the criminal classes becoming honest workers in 
time and will deter many from becoming criminals. F. E. M. 

Philadelphia, February 13, 1906. 

Washington was in favor of striking it out but Lafayette and 
others overruled him, but Washington, desirous to carry out his 
own convictions, set his own slaves free. 

What a great blessing it would have been if slavery had been 
abolished then ; no doubt there is ten times the evil existing to- 
day in the traffic of human beings heretofore mentioned. There 
have been so many evils growing up out of the first evil, for 
slavery and its growth, its continuance and toleration was due to 
the money made from the two evils — liquor and tobacco. 

Paul speaks of a ''Thorn in the flesh," while many theologians 
are not able to determine what it really was, yet it is very evident 
that this nation has entailed on it some thing as bad or worse, for 
the habit is so deeply rooted as to put a skeleton in nearly every 
closet, to mar the happiness of some one. 

There never has been a time in the world's history that people 
should enjoy themselves^ and see more happiness than now, and 
this condition is the chief aim of the human race ; but, because of 
the toleration of these two evils, our purpose is defeated and these 
effects are so far reaching that there is scarcely a person living 
that is not more or less affected by them, and as cold is the absence 
of heat, sorrow and remorse are the absence of joy and happiness. 

There are millions of wives and mothers, fathers and husbands 
robbed of proper affection by the person becoming as cold as one 
in the absence of heat. If vou will observe, vou will see manv 



the; twentieth century age of reason. 57 

who have become unfaithful to others largely because of their 
unbearably foul breath on account of the use of tobacco and 
liquor. The writer believes that seventy-five per cent, of such is 
due to the same cause; you may, per chance, be one of the sev- 
ent}-five per cent, and think you are deprived of some secret prac- 
tice and thereby lose much pleasure. If so, I would say if the 
anxiety and worriment of the same be made public, would it not 
over balance the pleasure of the secret vices ? Are the Scriptures 
untrue in saying "Whatsoever a man sows, that will he also reap?" 
We know because of the animal nature it is natural for all men to 
gamble, which they often do, on their character, as well as putting 
up so much money. 

This proves the great importance of abolishing anything that 
tends to degenerate man, especially his thinking powers, thereby 
becoming obtuse to the jeopardizing of character by the prevent- 
ing him from indulging in the things that cause a stimulation to 
any part of his nervous system. While all nations are having a 
difficult time to learn the secret of governing themselves, there 
might be a lesson learned from the Southern States after the ex- 
periments of Senator Tillman. 'Tn Senator Tillman's Dispen- 
sary" they find the only safety is in the prohibition and dis- 
continuance of liquor among the colored race, and as the negro 
has traveled North and become a great factor to the Republican 
party, will be compelled to do as the Democrats have done in brac- 
ing a solid South to prevent the many hideous crimes which are 
being perpetrated. The only solution to the problem is to prevent 
them from the acquiring of any intoxicating liquors. This can 
be done by becoming a solid North on the question. While the 
colored race is not the only problem, although he possesses more 
of the monkey, the white is equally important, as he possesses 
more of the hog nature. To govern him it is important to prevent 
the association of the sight to come to the mind, because a cov- 
etous nature is aroused by the same. The conditions and environ- 
ments make the man, and the general law of sociability causes 
man to conform to the conditions made for him and because of 
the graft nature they take the advantage of the animal nature. Man 
is transformed into the likeness of his surroundings and by first 
taking on himself an abnormal condition in his bodv, he is forced 



58 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

to meet the requirements of an abnormal system, in accordance 
with the inevitable law, before life begins and during its develop- 
ment, the sight of the eye moulds and forms his nature, as it is 
said like will beget like by its associations, and because of the 
effect through the optic nerve, it will form and mould the coming 
generation, as the same has been proven because of the physiolo- 
gical action by the sight of the eye which produces the phenom- 
enon of the birth mark. This same law will produce both the un- 
couth and repulsive and the beautiful and that which could be ad- 
mired, but the effect of its production depends on its association 
and environments. Men naturally always admire the noble and 
beautiful, but if he interfered with by his present conditions and 
environments as there is no posibility of a change as long as the 
sight and associations are so closely likened together, while the 
animal propensities of the hog nature overpowers reason for good, 
knowing the physiological effects of a narcotic habit is very far- 
reaching. This might be attributed to the phenomenal cause as 
often verified that a person who uses tobacco by smoking it unless 
he can see the smoke from his own pipe or cigar, there is no lux- 
ury connected with the use of the same, as the habit was con- 
tracted by sight. But, because man interferes with the negro 
man in a different way than our Creator intended that he should, 
God never intended them to be a self-governing people. He crea- 
ted them to remain in a climate where things grew naturally. Be- 
cause of a curse, God has, as it were, put a mark on the American 
nation, perhaps not like the one that God put on Cain because 
he slew his brother Abel, but people can be marked mentally by 
association, and as the eye and the brain are linked together, the 
physiological action is only natural in producing its effect. Know- 
ing the brain is the motor to the body and the effect is easily pro- 
duced by the white race mixing with the colored race, the white 
man takes the colored man's dialect, and if allowed to associate 
with them, he will become like unto the negro, mentally. Also 
the color will vary according to condition. Amalgamation, as ex- 
ample, of a Mulatto mother and a dark father. The children will 
always be darker than the mother, as the mother is compelled to 
associate with her husband, and due to the sight of the mother be- 
holding the children's father. i\nd as the negro has traveled 



THE TWENTIRTH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 59 

North, it may be producing its effect politically. The sight of 
scooping so many colored votes makes a physical change that it 
is impossible to exist, as the opportunities make such an impres- 
sion like unto the impressions which are made and stored up on 
a phonograph, that it is impossible, because of the impression on 
the brain because of an opportunity, the white man is unable to re- 
sist, and there is no other way to overcome the temptations but to 
remove them. 

The same principle of conveying by sight to act on the brain 
could be applied to the controlling of anything that is not natural 
to the system, by sight, thereby affects the brain. You may call 
it convolution,, but the impressions are similar to imbrasure. So the 
impressions made by sight are as an embrasure to the brain, similar 
to an embrasure on the body, caused by some evil person ; there- 
fore, if an embrasure is made on a boy's brain because of a fine 
looking man smoking a cigar, an evil comes out in the boy's con- 
tracting the habit, because of the attribute of imitation, the man is. 
in one sense, as responsible as if he had injured the boy by inflict- 
ing an embrasure which is injurious to the boy's body. You might 
say there are many other things which are indulged in because of 
the sights seen or from a craving for such that is natural to the 
"body, which might not be wicked because of the sight beholding 
the object but would be sinful if indulged in, if anyone is injured 
thereby. But because of the many acts that occur through the im- 
prudence of others producing an embrasure on the brain, the whole 
human race might be compared, as published by Robert Ingersoll. 
as one act producing another before our bodies come into the 
stage of action, as it was with Ingersoll. His father was a Pres- 
iDyterian minister and was having family worship and the chil- 
dren becoming unruly, the father arose from his worship and 
gave them a chastising. This instance so excited the mother be- 
cause of Robert's father's sacreligious acts that the impression 
was transmitted to Robert and as soon as he learned to know 
good and evil his tendency was to ridicule and make unbecoming- 
remarks about the Christian religion ; and as he developed into 
manhood, with the natural desire for money, he soon learned he 
could make it by charging 50 cents apiece to deliver his message 
in upbraiding the Christian religion. 



6o THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

On this principle one man can make an embrasure on another 
man's brain after he is born and the effects are felt similar to the 
imprudent acts of Robert Ingersoll's father made an embrasure 
on Robert before he was born. As it was, Robert Ingersoll 
sought pleasure and happiness through notoriety because of a 
phenomenal mental mark, and whether the same mark that Cain 
received was a mental mark and we inherit it, one from the other, 
or whether day by day our own acts are reproducing the mental 
mark is an unanswerable question. When God asked Cain, 
"Where is thy brother," he replied, ''Am I my brother's keeper?" 
Are we not our brother's keeper by our own acts ? as here shown 
by the following clipping: 

"In spite of the work of the temperance societies and the 
growth in their membership," said the persistent statistician, "the 
amount of beer consumed by Philadelphians is on the increase. 
The report of Internal Revenue Collector McCoach for 1905 
shows that during the first half of the year $1,415,326 was col- 
lected as revenue on beer, and during the second six months 
$1,545,677. As one dollar a barrel is the tax on beer, this shows 
that 130,351 more barrels of beer were drunk from June to 
December than from January to July. In all, 2,961,003 barrels 
were drunk by Philadelphians during the year, more than two 
barrels apiece for each man, woman and child in the city. There 
being 32 gallons, or 128 quarts, in each barrel and four ordinary 
glasses in each quart, making 512 glasses in a barrel, 1,516,033,- 
536 glasses were consumed in 1905, or about 1124 glasses for each 
unit of population. But, of course, a large proportion of the pop- 
ulation does not drink, including children and the majority of 
women. There are in this city 386,953 males and 408,348 females 
over 21 years of age. Three-fourths of the males, or 300,214, 
drink beer, and one-fourth of the females, or 102,087, in all 402,- 
301 persons who drink the foamy liquid. Dividing this number 
into the total number of glasses drunk, it is found that each beer 
drinker in the city consumes on an average of 3768 glasses a 
year, or between 10 and 1 1 glasses a day. At five cents a glass, 
the average beer drinker spends between 50 and 60 cents a day on 
beer alone, or $188.40 a year." When the statistician got through 
and viewed the amazing result he concluded that he had not made 
the number of beer drinkers high enough. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 6l 

That every man that has used his portion of more than two 
barrels there must have been some who drank five barrels or more 
to make up for the non-users. I would not attempt to reason 
whether those that used that amount that if there was any excuse 
for such, how can there be when man's physical nature does not 
require it or even demand it. If so, all persons would have a 
craving for such in their normal condition and the writer has been 
a total abstainer from tobacco and liquor over 45 years, and enjoys 
good health, and there are millions who could testify to the same, 
but the excuse of those who consume this portion is that their 
father drank and lived so long and that he used tobacco and lived 
so long, and a person who uses tobacco is as bright mentally as 
those who do not use tobacco. 

Here is where the delusion is. The effect may not be received 
instantaneously, but it will be in the offspring. As the effect upon 
the heart of the father is sure to be reproduced and become weak- 
er in each generation. What is the use of using a thing if it is of 
no use ? but through a love for humanity it is the prompting of this 
book to educate people to a higher ideal of living because of the 
unreasonableness of your acts and only show, as I have in other 
pages of this book, that it is impossible to receive any benefit from 
either. 

Also the use of tobacco is largely due to the drinking of intoxica- 
ting liquors. This custom is all due to the profit to the vender 
because of the love of money. Those that have patronized the 
vender are to be pitied and the ones that have inocculated their 
system with the poison are the ones that desire the most to be 
free, as only those who know the dire effect can tell of the remorse 
it has brought to them and their families. 

We know that the city of Philadelphia government receives a 
revenue on every barrel, but who is to pay the revenue to the lov- 
ing wife or the mother for the barrel of tears shed bcause 1,516,- 
033,536 glasses of liquor are consumed in one year? The average 
consumption of liquor per capita is 18 gallons, but Philadelphia 
has 32. This may be due to the impure water which has made an 
excuse for some to drink, but if the water is any worse than the 
beer when it will rot the soles off bartender's shoes and his finger 
nails, may the Lord have pity on those who are compelled to use 



62 TILK TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE O? REASON. 

either the water or the beer. Pure water and pure food, the 
former is the only beverage for the promoting of health for which 
the writer can speak from experience and observation when Cam- 
den was compelled to drink the water from the Delaware river. 
I call to mind a case of a young man whom I had in my employ 
and had brighter prospects in Philadelphia and engaged a position. 
Unfortunately he contracted typhoid fever and died. But his 
habits being temperate he may have preferred to take his chances 
on the water, but if the list of such casusalties because of the 
drinking of beer could be traced, I have no doubt the beer side 
would have it. But as death does occur because there is money 
made, by one supplying the beer and the politician making money 
by compelling people to drink impure water. This is a case of 
putting a person between the devil and the deep blue sea. There 
has been much credit given to Lawson's Magazine in unearthing 
the many evils of commercial robbery, but what people want is 
a remedy to prevent this rottenness in political system, which 
method disregards the manhood of the nation and the two evils 
are as inseparable as the Siamese twins. I will enclose a clipping 
which may show the public one method as a means to an end : 

BILLION A YEAR FOR DRINK. 

Dr. Madison C. Peters, at the Broad Street Baptist Church, 
selected for his text last night, ''He that earneth wages, earneth 
wages to put into a bag with holes." Haggai I, 6. Dr. Peters 
said: "Commercialism is the prevailing vice of the American 
people. Our Presidential campaigns of the past generation have 
been waged and won on a simple question of trade. The most 
successful thing for any party to do is to touch the pocket nerve 
of the American people. If we can convince the American peo- 
ple that liquor selling and buying does not pay we have made our 
case for temperance. We must array the commercialism of 
America against the liquor traffic. 

"Considered merely as a question of dollars and dimes, the anti- 
saloon issue will some day became the problem in our American 
politics. The entire amount received for tariff is something like 
$150,000,000 per annum. The total output of the silver product is 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 01^ REASON, 63 

$60,000,000, while the gold product in this country is perhaps 
$8,000,000 per annum. It is reliably estimated that the direct trib- 
ute which the people of this country pay to the support of the 
liquor traffic is $1,000,000,000. 

"The ordinary expense of the United States Government for all 
the departments, prior to the Spanish- American war, was less than 
$400,000,000, so that the drink bill was nearly three times the 
amount required to run the entire Government of the United 
States. 

"Our mineral product, including gold, silver, iron, copper, zinc, 
lead, quicksilver and aluminum, is less than $300,000,000 per an- 
num. That is to say, more than three times as much is spent for 
drink as the value of all metals from our mines. The amount 
spent for liquor is more than four times the value of all the bitum- 
inoiis and anthracite coal produced annually. Three times the 
value of all our woolen manufactures are spent for drink. 

"It would seem that the economic aspects of the liquor business 
ought to challenge the attention even of those who are insensible 
to its moral, social and political influences- The diversion of so 
vast a sum from the lines of useful and productive industries must 
affect them seriously. One billion dollars turned from the saloons 
into the channels of legitimate trade would go far toward improv- 
ing the general industrial condition. The men who devote their 
time and money to social reforms without pointing to the saloon 
as the first cause of poverty and degredation are striking with a 
straw and seeking figs where only brambles grow." 

This one great reason that all this great boogaboo we can't pre- 
vent these conditions, is commercialism. It has a whole Chris- 
tian nation in a condition of reciprocity which involves all from 
the laymen to the bishop. The layman may be in a grocery busi- 
ness ; the preacher may have some of his official men who belong 
to a political party. The bishop may feel he can procure more 
money by staying with the party that may have the wealthiest 
members and will contribute large sums of money to build some 
university or church. When the Bishops separate themselves 
from the Republican party, that gives us 250,000 saloons ; when 
that party stops licensing and receiving revenue, then the epoch 
will mark the beginning of the ner era, how to control the human 
race. 



64 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

To attempt to do otherwise would be like making the attempt 
to mix oil with water, and every person who attempts to accom- 
plish a reform without removing these two twin evils, tobacco 
and liquor, is building a tower of Babel of his own. Is there 
any hope for a change in our present condition of the people? I 
would say no, not as long as they expect to reform by the same 
party that produces the need of reform and those connected w^ith 
the part}' beg money to build institutions to reform, would it not 
be a good investment to build a psychological institution that the 
same ones may go to and take lessons to learn the difference be- 
tween a license and prohibition ? They are the same only different 
in purpose. A license prohibits another man from enjoying the 
same as the purchaser of license. Then the would-be reformer 
believes in prohibition and don't practice it. 

As soon as you pass a law that prevents one from governing his 
own body, you start an arrogant feeling and the passing of a law 
to prohibit boys from smoking and then have the opportunity 
where he may procure them, }'ou will make more smokers than if 
you never had passed the law. The boy does not possess the reas- 
oning powers and does it because of the bravado defiant spirit or 
of daring to do so and brings into action the same spirit of Adam, 
when he was forbidden to partake of the fruit. 

If in the early discovery of tobacco being a poison weed and 
made of it a punishment, they being compelled to use it for the 
committing of certain crimes and poisoned a few criminals by it, 
I doubt if the poison weed would have ever been used as it is now, 
as it would have been viewed as being disgraceful and w^ould only 
have been used in a class with other poisons, as an emetic. I 
might suggest a more effectual way of preventing a boy from 
contracting this habit by making him a present if he would not 
use it. By doing so you strike another characteristic that he is 
not being denied the privilege but he can use it if he wants to. 
By doing so, you put him on his honor and creates a more manly 
and friendly feeling that you have made a sacrifice because you 
loved him. And by your showing your sincerity of a true mean- 
ing of love, you have filled an aching void by performing this 
mission which the whole human race is in dire need of. To have 
this principle manifested to them. When practiced, the word love 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 65 

has such a broad meaning that pages could be written and if ap- 
pHed properly would have much to do in controlling the human 
race. It first starts in the home, but in some families like unto the 
man who prayed : "Lord, bless me and by wife, my son John and 
his wife, we four and no more." This is the prevailing spirit 
to-day; they would rather see a thousand slain or injured than 
one of their own, which might be as the late San Francisco dis- 
aster or 100,000 who died annually because of the drink habit, 
and as long as things go well with them, they are happy, but as it 
is impossible to live to themselves alone, the breach of happiness 
-is made because the management of the government is not con- 
ducive to happiness, largely because of the many evils which the 
Christian church is responsible for. 

If you make home happy you have a happy nation. What do 
the father and mother care, where they have sons and daughters, 
Avhether the Panama Canal is ever built, whether we acquire the 
government of the Philippines or whether the rebate law is in 
force on the railroads, so long as the lives of their children are not 
forever despoiled by these accursed habits. 

From all appearances it might be with Congress as it was with 
the New Jersey Legislature when the controlling of the Glouces- 
ter race-track and the Guttenberg was at the highest tension, the 
best thing they did was when they adjourned. Why did the 
Legislature make the attempt? Because families were destroyed 
through the gambling spirit and more especially of its distracting 
the commercial interests in Philadelphia, New York and New 
Jersey. Why the great interest was taken was because of the 
commercial side, to prevent stealing, as too often the story was 
told of some city official spending the taxpayers' money and the 
clerk spending the merchant's money to bet on the horse-race, and 
lastly, the great interest was the political side. The Republicans 
were out and wanted to get in. The race-track issue was their 
only chance to get there. 

Therefore, they appealed to the church to help them, but when 
you come to the saloon it is different. The same enters into the 
physical part of man, like unto the boy who contracts a habit of 
smoking cigarettes, it makes him defiant to interfere by compelling 
him by laAv to stop smoking, therefore interfering with him as to 



66 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

how he should govern his body. And this is the strongest power 
of the saloon and it would be much better to have narcotics free 
and make the whipping post effectual in the controlling of the 
human race, as it is impossible to educate the boy while you make 
a temptation for him regarding anything that enters into his physi- 
cal being, as you might as well attempt to educate a hog not to 
eat when you put food before him, as is proven by the millions 
who learned to use the tobacco and drink when young, but seldom 
stopped when they learned of its injurious effects. As an exam- 
ple, the child will learn that the stove will burn through experi- 
ence, and will not touch it, but because of that he will not let 
tobacco alone when he is injured^ But because the fathers and 
mothers know through experience of their many mistakes they 
made during their youthful period makes much unhappiness be- 
cause of a fear, knowing they are human and susceptible to the 
many temptations which are at the present time greater than they 
were when they were young. As happiness is more precious than 
gold and silver, as the Scriptures sayeth, ''A good name is rather 
to be chosen than silver or gold." This can only be procured by 
making the home happy and not by building up large structures 
which, in a sense, are lekened to so many forts to stay the progress 
of the enemy. Would it not be. better to remove from the sight 
the cause and build your forts or institutions? as said, in time of 
peace, prepare for war. By doing so you have gone a long way in 
solving the problem what to do with the young man of to-day. 

Therefore, things he once enjoyed he will learn to hate the so- 
called social customs that have forced themselves on the entire 
world, which out of the same have been brought anarchists and 
three-quarters of all the crimes committed by the granting of 
such privileges. 

How can you expect the world to grow better when through 
the sight embrasures are made on the boy's brain, the same caus- 
ing it to remain with him during his life ? 



IS MAN AN ANIMAL? 

Is man an animal or a combination of three animals? God 
saith, "Let us make man in our own image." As this is true, man 
is God in his spirit but animal in the flesh, and as man in the flesh 
cannot be anything else but animal, God created as his component 
parts the traits of three animals to perform the work he was in- 
tended to do — like the dog, the hog and the monkey, — ^this being 
essential to accomplish God's purpose in the spiritual realm; 
therefore, it is as essential that he should possess these qualities 
as it is for an engine to be composed of its parts to perform its 
work. 

To establish the fact of the animal propensity in man we must 
follow out the system of the phrenologist of a man's physiognomy 
to the animals named. The dog is possessed with sagaciousness to 
protect his own rights and those of his master, possessing almost 
human intelligence when his domain is encroached upon by man 
or animal, he resembles some people and takes the law to himself 
by the power invested in his jaw, and ejects them and he does not 
wait for j vidge or j ury to run the risk of their being bribed ; there 
is as much difference in the traits of dogs as in people. It has 
been known that some people holding political oflices where they 
had the power to enforce some laws for the purpose of collecting 
the fines or the valuation of some trivial matter, they might be 
classed with the animal known as the setter-dog : a strong propen- 
sity for game, and will act with the same intelligence as his master 
to procure the same. 

Of all animals the dog comes nearest to being the man's com- 
panion, so it is not any wonder that man should imitate this specie 
of dog, when there is any money to be had in hunting up fines. 
There might be much more said regarding the analogy between 
the human race and the dog. 

Those who are interested in prosecuting people to secure money 
may find much pleasure in reading up dog traits of this particular 
breed of dogs. 

67 



*68 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

The hog is the next on the Ust of comparison with man. While 
there are many persons who never have had much experience with 
the hog, but because of their well-known disposition man is often 
compared to this animal, and owing to the Jew's adverseness to 
•eating of swine meat, their crudity regarding this may be due to 
the interpretation of the Scriptures, and because of their nearness 
in action to their brother, they protest against the eating of meat, 
they feel that they would be classed among the cannibals. 

Regarding the hog's docility, there are but few animals that are 
equal. They can be taught to do many tricks by way of amusing an 
audience at a cheap show, but the most predominant trait in man 
is his hoggishness. While this is such a common expression, it 
seems to be hard to avoid the similarity between man and hog 
Toeing coupled, and be compelled to submit to it as being inevit- 
able. While this is not the only similarity, that is so common it 
might be used to many in avoiding uncalled-for trouble and dif- 
ficulty to themselves as well as others, and this propensity is the 
acquiring of something regardless of thought or future conse- 
quence. 

Being somewhat familiar with the care of swine in my younger 
years and knowing that they are possessed of three characteristics 
which, when practiced, brings themselves to the level of the hog, 
for the hog has no regard for cleanliness, especially if its body 
feels the need of cooling off, it will wallow in the filth in prefer- 
ence to pure water. Man will do the same thing. A large part 
■of mankind will cleanse themselves and keep clean, but the natural 
tendency is to go dirty. Cleanliness is a result of civilization; to 
prove the same, let man contract the filthy habit of intoxication ; it 
will rob him of all his attainments in culture and pride till he is left 
with a natural inclination to be filthy. They have been known to 
lie down and sleep in the same pen with hogs. Another charac- 
teristic of the hog is to eat too much. He then becomes a dyspep- 
tic and ceases to grow fat. Another characteristic of the hog is to 
acquire something, especially that which enters into the stomach, 
and it will not stop to consider the consequences of obtaining it 
from any corn field or potato patch until it is reminded by the 
barking of a dog. Then it is reminded of what happened a day 
previous. Many seem to forget the terror of the law in securing 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 69- 

anything thev desire to acquire. It seems to cause them to be 
devoid of reason or deficient in reason, and only think of one 
thing at a time. Another character Hkened to man ; if you attempt 
to drive him, he will want to go the other way. If you should re- 
call the many acts of those who hold offices of trust and other mis- 
doings due to animal passion, it would cause one to think he was. 
closely related to the dog. 

The last named animal, the monkey, has the most noticeable- 
traits of which man is the imitator. These qualities have caused 
man to rise to the higher attainments ; also to fall to the lowest 
depth of depravity. We are very certain that man in his primitive 
stage was very far from the present condition, in arts and sciences, 
and in the erection of their dwellings, as history and other sources 
of information tell us that man dwelt in caves. If this be true, we 
have been 6,000 years in advancing to the present condition which 
is supposed to be the highest type of civilization in the world's his- 
tory, and, if so, it is due to this one trait of imitation. It seems 
that it requires a combination of three animals to make man the 
ruler over all other animals, as all other beasts have remained 
the same with no development on their part. 

This is the strongest argument that can be produced in evidence 
of the wisdom of the Creator in forming something for a purpose 
which is largely developed in man. The power to invent is the 
only qualification that makes man eligible to that relation honored 
by his Maker. When He said, ''Let us make man in the image 
of God," and as you observe the race of people who so nearly re- 
semble an animal, they have but little inventive genius, because of 
the hoggish disposition overbalancing the sagaciousness of the 
dog which is to watch and guard against thieves and intruders, 
it would make this world very different from what it was intended 
to be if they possessed more of the traits of old dog Tray, as the 
poem reads, "He is gentle and he's kind, you will never, never find, 
a better friend that old dog Tray." I have recently read of two 
of the most atrocious crimes committed by negroes. The condi- 
tion of that race is brought about by white people permitting 
the traits of the hog to be more fully developed than those of the 
monkey ; hence, the negro naturally gives way to his natural pro- 
clivities of the monkey part and by his imitation is caught in the 



70 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

white man's trap through habit or desire for Hquor, and without 
doubt seven-eighths of all crimes committed by this race of people, 
such as rape, murder, race-riot, are due to this one thing. This 
interference w4th God's plan has entailed on this nation a great 
problem in how to deal with this race of people. All this has 
been brought about because of the hog part being too powerful. 
This must be the interpretation of the Scripture containing the 
narrative of the devil entering into the swine, which ran down 
into the sea and were drowned. If the devil did enter the swine, 
I see no reason why he should not enter the hog part of man. It 
is no wonder the whole world is having such a hard struggle to 
rise out of the first purgatory, (meaning this world) for there is 
more unhappiness and sorrow than there is joy and pleasure. 
Then, is it not rightly a purgatory? And if there is one, why 
should there not be another chance? Certainly the greater part 
■of the human race are not in a proper condition to enter with the 
redeemed, for there are three animals in one body and no one in 
harmony with the other, and each opposed in its nature to the 
spiritual. This being is only a spirit that is brought into use with 
a desire to control the several parts of the physical nature. In 
this same principle is found the reason why a reformed man can- 
not stay reformed. All the nerves of the body are clamoring for 
their needs and the desire of the animal by the abuse of alcohol 
acting on the brain, is causing it to become weak. It is thus over- 
powered by the intense desire for stimulant to satisfy the nerves, 
the physical overcomes the mental. Among the various animals 
there are some that cannot be made docile, namely the hyena ; it 
would be more inconsistent to attempt to control three animals 
in one body when the}- are arrayed against each other, as it would 
the hyena. Those who claim to be keepers of this menagerie an.d 
who will spread out things before them to tempt them, such as 
tobacco, opium and liquor. When they once form this taste, you 
have nothing but the animal left, as in nine cases out of ten the 
habit controls the man. If this be true, is it right and proper that 
a man addicted to any of these habits should be allowed to vote in 
a local option contest, where the abolishment of these things is 
questioned. No sane person would want a case of his tried in 
court where -the jurors are influenced by a selfish nature or men 



the; twentikth century age of reason. 71 

who are controlled by the stomach. I believe this comparison war- 
rants the challenge of sober men, if they have any desire for liquor, 
and further believe, anyone differing from this court of juris- 
prudence ought to be tested for his sanity in the same way 
as the asylum tests the sanity of its patients by putting them, as 
used in the asylum, into a water tank and turning on the spigot, 
to see if they have reason enough to turn the spigot oft'. It is my 
desire that the reader should not forget the purpose of this sub- 
ject. The person who does not reason or has but little capacity 
to reason, because of submitting to the influences of the animal 
which constitutes his component parts. This must be the inter- 
pretation of the Scripture, that we be all of one body and yet dis- 
tinct by the traits of the three animal natures. The hand cannot 
say to the feet "I have no need of thee." Neither to the eye to the 
ear, nor can the tongue say to the brain,. "I have no need of thee." 
The brain being the seat of thinking power, governs the entire 
man. The brain of man is all there is of him, hence the great im- 
portance of avoiding the taking of anything into the stomach to 
steal away the brain. 

NEW CONDITION 1\IAY BE A TAX. 

Alcohol being a poison, it is unnatural to the system. If it were 
otherwise, a child would crave it as he does milk, but as it is not 
nutrition and cannot be digested, it acts directly on the nerves 
and brain and all the nerves are taxed to the limit to resist the 
intruder and prevent one becoming intoxicated. The nerves are 
exhausted, as if you had taxed them to do some other hard labor, 
and the heart is to be likened unto an engine when it has an extra 
amount of labor to perform : your whole being is put into motion 
to accomplish it. The nerves being exhausted, the heart is com- 
pelled to stinuilate them by that law of nature which restores 
everything to perfection. It is caused to beat eighteen times more 
every minute because you have forced on yourself a poison. Like 
an enemy you have taken to ride in your carriage and he turns 
on you and overpowers you. The heart is forced to meet new con- 
ditions. It is like putting spurs to your horse. It wears him out 



72 the: twentieth century age of reasoxX. 

that much sooner. This must be the interpretation of the Scrip- 
ture, "Strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby 
is not wise." Alcohol has great affinity for water. It soon dries 
up the fluids of the body which supports the brain. Because of 
this direct action on the brain and the often repeated assaults of 
King Alcohol it becomes weak, just as any other member of the 
body and is not capable of resisting the demands of the animal 
nature. There are thousands of crimes committed, whether under 
the influence of liquor or not because of the weakening of the 
brain from the former use of alcohol. Because of this, we have 
jails and almshouses filled to their full capacity and our criminal 
courts are packed to their limit of which seven-eights are due to 
the drink habit. Is it any wonder that it costs taxpayers sixteen 
dollars to each one received by revenue? to say nothing of the 
loss to merchants of money spent that would largely have gone 
into other channels of trade and lost through bad debts, of which 
the writer could testify. The bad debt column of his ledger costs 
him a thousand dollars annually. The system of licensing permits 
one man to have the privilege of changing a man's brain until he 
loses all moral obligation to pay his honest debts. When this con- 
dition takes place, we have on the nation's hands, a man worse 
than a beast. We know what to do with the beasts but with a 
man (we have three animals in one) making the combination of 
the human race a source of annoyance to those who we feel it a 
duty to act as their brother's keeper. 

If this condition was confined to the one person, it would not 
be so bad, but it effects the mother, the child and the would-be-a- 
man if he could. He is kept constantly in fear, believing that the 
uncontrollable habit will fasten itself on him, and it already has 
though he does not know it, as he never makes the attempt to 
stop. 



ANIMAL TRAITS. 



Man is an animal. All animals are classified. To what class 
does man belong? I will not make the attempt to say, but let 
every one do this for himself, and, if unable, he should go to the 
phrenologists who are proficient in their business. Allow me to 
suggest some resemblances between man and the various animals. 

A person whose head is constructed broad between his ears 
possesses courage and fearlessness ; he would be classed with the 




This cut represents the various characters and traits of the animal which 
the human race is supposed to possess, thereby all mankind is predisposed 
to imitate the animal. The reliability of this is proven by all phrenologists, 
which profession verifies the truthfulness of the same. 

lion. A man narrow between the ears would be classed with the 
rabbit or sheep. The person whose head does not round out in 

73 



74 I'fiE^ twrntij]:th century age of reason. 

the back is lacking in perseverance, as he has nothing to push 
him forward, and has the character of the sloth. A person who 
has a prominent nose usually is persevering and courageous, like 
that of a Roman soldier. A person whose nose sinks in is easily 
discouraged. A person with a large jaw, like that of William 
Jennings Bryan, is usually determined. The person whose fore- 
head slopes back is not usually well balanced, but often wdtty, if 
there is a prominence over the eyes. 

As there can be no uncertainty to man's possessing certain traits 
of animals, then it is essential that there should be the best form 
of punishment to govern the various animal dispositions he pos- 
sesses, and, as I have undertaken to establish the fact that the 
almighty dollar is the controlling power, and, as we have settled 
our nation's dependency through our political system, there must 
be saloons, and as long as they exist, there shall be certain laws 
made to meet the emergency caused by their effects. Therefore, 
I would recommend the adoption -of the whipping post and the 
wearing of the criminal suit, as long as the criminal remained in 
the State where the crime is committed. I believe this mode of 
punishment to prevent crime and remeding the many evils exist- 
ing to-day would be equally as effectual as Senator Dolliver's 
panacea, which is conversion. In our present mode of punishment 
there is too much mighty dollar connected with it, as the detectives 
must have their share, the controller, the policemen, the lawyers, 
the judges, the prosecutors, the city recorder and, in some cities, 
the sheriff. I have heard of men sentenced for thirty days who 
were let out in ten, but the board was charged for thirty days, and 
the man under a different name, and the man rearrested under a 
different name, board charged for him, and under the present Re- 
publican form of government, taxpayers were compelled to meet 
this additional expense. Because of this condition, there are many 
physicians called to administer to the physical needs, resulting 
from the violation of health laws. Also physicians by the name of 
evangelists must be paid by the churches to assist in helping cure 
sin-sick souls who want to escape the first stage of purgatorv 
which their denomination teaches, and collect revenue from the 
victim desiring thus to be liberated. This is to all appearances 
granting indulgences to religious worshippers to sin. The theorv 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 75 

and principle of purgatory is practical as the Creator made man, 
three parts animal and one part spiritual, thereby he may have an- 
other chance that his desire for a better future existence may be 
gratified. 

With the animal, He created them and supplied them with all 
their needs for this world. It may be illustrated by the camel, 
whose flat foot is adapted for the sandy desert, a double stomach 
for the storing of water that he may not suffer before he can reach 
another oasis. In the creation of granivorous and carnivorous 
animals he has supplied all their needs and they live happily and 
enjoy good health when supplied with enough food and water. 
But because of this combination of animal craving with reason, 
man seeks to procure his living as the strong animal lives, upon 
the weaker, who has not sense enough to know he is being con- 
sumed. Knowing all these conditions to which the human race is 
subjected, his first stage of reason would lead him to the need of 
a purgatory before man will be fitted to enter the higher realm 
of perfect bliss, which he fancies is to exist because of the one 
implanted nature of God and with the desire to live in the future. 
God will supply all the spiritual needs as He has supplied them 
for the animals. And as for all their needs of the body, we desire 
to know the things in this world and the desire will be gratified 
as though we were still in the body, but when the spirit is free 
from the body, man will be in the image of God and know all 
things and the omnipresent at will in any part of God's universe. 

WHIPPING POST ESSENTIAL. 

To come back to earth again, let me give reasons why the whip- 
ping post is essential to perfect man for his future abode. First, 
the physical part of man is purely animal, and as all animals are 
brought under obedience by fear of the lash, the more rigidly it 
is enforced the better this class of people will be. But this mode 
of punishment may be antagonistic and distasteful to some who 
think they are living in the days of high civilization. It might be 
true if the use of tobacco and intoxicating liquor did not bring 
the masses to a level with the animal ; therefore, the whipping post 
should be brought into use as speedily as possible, and be contin- 



76 THIS tw£:ntie:th century age oi? reason. 

ued as long as they exist thereby. Avoid making criminals by 
failing to enforce the law, as in our present mode we have the 
strongest proof of the importance of using the lash. Scripture 
says "By sparing the rod, you spoil the child." The necessity for 
punishment is due to the lack of reason, and knowing that man is 
only a grown up child, with childish tendencies, therefore, his 
lack of knowledge leaves him to fall into the pits set to capture 
him. 

Another reason for the enforcement of the whipping post is 
that the terror of God's law has lost its effect and that mode of 
punishment does not produce the effect as would punishment and 
the fear of the whipping post naturally controlling the animal pro- 
pensities, thereby by the enforcement of the law will be more in- 
clined to spiritual reform. 

Another very important reason for the enforcement of the whip- 
ping post is found in the negro problem. There is scarcely a 
morning paper but what has an account of awful crimes com- 
mitted by this race of people ; crimes rarely known while they 
were in slavery. No doubt, it was due to the fear of the lash and 
the keeping of intoxicating liquors from them. I have no doubt 
that those who commit these crimes indulge in liquor. The pro- 
hibiting of liquor and the enforcement of the whipping post law 
would be the greatest agency in bringing about a better condition 
of the colored race. And each dollar of the money spent in try- 
ing to educate them would do the work of three by the enforce- 
ment of these laws. With the white race, it would prevent wife- 
beating. The white man is more inclined to taking chances of 
getting the court to favor him by permitting him to go free, es- 
pecially if he has any political pull. 

PRESENT CONDITION OF A/TAN. 

We are living in an age of great pomposity ; each person carries 
with him his own identity. This has its influence either to make 
the world better or the reverse. 

If worse, then your life has been one of the nature of the 
sponge, in two ways : first, by absorption, and it has been squeezed 
by some one to give out what you procure from some one else. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. ' 77 

The other phase of the sponge is in not doing your part. The 
same will apply to the individual and not to the other fellow, 
because whatever acts you do politically tend to lower the stand- 
ard of true manliness. Your doings will apply to the sponge; 
the essential qualities in man to perpetuate a government that peo- 
ple will be made more happy by your actions. We know that the 
morals of the people are the only power for the maintenance of 
the government in a republic, when every citizen is a sovereign 
with a right to vote ; hence, morality is a safeguard of the nation. 
We know that happiness depends upon how a government is 
conducted, for when the wicked are in power men mourn. When 
the righteous are in power men rejoice. This is seen in the Boer 
war, the Philippine far, the Civil war and the Revolutionary war. 
War is the outgrowth of dissatisfied people. This political war 
for good government is compulsory because of the contending 
forces and every battle won by those fighting for good govern- 
ment, and in so doing, men are as patriotic as in the days of the 
Civil war. We have a contending force which might be classed 
as tories to any government. In our present Republican form of 
government, this condition seems to be inevitable, for grafts so 
inbred in the animal propensities that it will outwit the enforce- 
ment of the law for the suppression of vice. This causes a con- 
tinuous battle, as the animal part of man can only be compared 
to certain animals which procure their living by stealth, for they 
know no other way and they will not be taught. The only way to 
reform this class of people is by displacing the old pasture by a 
new one. To illustrate : The person who makes a living by per- 
forming some acrobatic feat, if he should meet with an accident 
which would require a year to heal his wounds, he would go back 
to the same occupation. The gambler who has become proficient 
knows of no other way. The saloonkeeper does not know how to 
do anything else, neither does the man who keeps a tobacco store. 
We might mention the many who get their living by political 
office. As long as we make a pasture for these classes of people, 
there will always be persons to feed in it, and by using desperate 
means to secure the office. 

As this is true, there is but one thing to do, that is to stop mak- 
ing environments that produce them to accept the inevitable. It 



78 Tim TWI-NTIETH CENTURY AGK 0? REASON. 

would be needless to ask how you would like to be reckoned on 
the same side with two hundred and fifty thousand saloonkeepers 
and with those who go with that class, such as the gambler, the 
thief, the robber. I think you would say, "No, I prefer to be in 
the other army." Yet we have them among us and about us and 
the great army who are being trained to follow in their footsteps 
and are constantly bringing annoyance and sorrow to thousands of 
homes. Is there no balm of Gilead or are there no physicians to 
cure this condition? If not, the whole human race is in a worse 
condition than a ship at sea without a rudder or compass, and we 
shall be obliged to be as was the man who was ship-wrecked and 
floating on a log began to pray by saying, "Oh, good Lord; Oh, 
good Devil." His comrade asked him why he prayed to both. 
He said he didn't know whose hands he was going to fall into; 
and as graft has stripped the sails of our ship-of-state, we are 
•left at the mercy of the goodness of our Creator. To quote the 
Scripture verse, '*As a tree falls, so it lieth." Give us a chance of 
a second purgatory for the condition of the human race. When 
you consider the number of suicides and would-be suicides — if 
they were more sure of their future state — there is a demand that 
man should have another chance. This condition can be com- 
pared to a man and his wife who have lived together for many 
years. Their lives had not always been rosy, and there came up 
a terrible gale. Thinking every moment would be their last, they 
resolved to pray and make confession to each other for their 
many wrong doings, so the wife began by telling how unfaithful 
she had been. It kept getting worse and worse, so that he could 
not endure it any longer. At length he exclaimed, "Gabriel, blow ; 
I am ready to go." This is a fair example of the larger part of 
mankind. Someone's wrong doing is the cause of a large amount 
of unhappiness, and there is no help for it, as the action of one 
disturbs and unfits the other to give spiritual advice, and we are 
compelled to rely on the mercies of God to supply our needs, 
hence, the demand for a place where man may be reclaimed and 
not entirely lost. Otherwise, there will be man)^ millions lost, for 
they will never materialize, as they never have received the in- 
grafting of the Holy Spirit. And as you believe, so it shall be 
unto you. This is in accordance with reason, as man could be 



THD TWENTIETPI CENTURY AGE 01^ REASON. 79 

compared to the vegetable kingdom. If it has no germ, there 
is nothing to reproduce its kind. If man has no behef in a God, 
then it would be natural that his spirit should not go where the 
redeemed are permitted to be, for he has no germ of thought to 
cause him to become chosen fruit, and we can only let those rely 
on their own judgment regarding their future existence, as to 
whether this be an interpretation of the Scripture, "As a tree falls, 
so it lieth," and there can be no reproduction of the material in 
a spiritual form. 

PURGATORY. 

Of all places imaginable, this is the most repulsive to the 
thought of man. The name is only to represent a place where lost 
spirits dwell and the name is accepted as given by the Holy Scrip- 
ture through inspiration of God. The acceptance of this I leave 
with the reader to determine whether it is the result of man's 
imagination or the product of inspiration acting on man, that he 
might shun and escape this place by living a life that would not 
be fitted for the place called Heaven. Without one, the other 
would have no significance. Therefore, did the word "hell" 
originate with man because in his imagination there should be 
such a place for evil-doers ? Was this the outgrowth of condemna- 
tion coming to men for their actions to the other ? Certainly those 
who wrote the description of hell must have had a feeling of 
enmity and could not wish for any better sense of condemnation 
than that which is described in God's word, and as human nature 
has never changed from its earliest history, in all probability, 
when the Scriptures were written those who wrote it had more 
or less difficulty with their own fellowmen, and accordingly their 
sense of abuse led them to feel that their enemies were all fitted 
companions ; hence the selection of a place in his imagination that 
was fitted for them to inhabit. 

The writer might, by his experience, feel the same toward 
many persons whom he had befriended and afterwards were so 
mean that he felt they were deserving of such a place as described, 
and was tempted to put them in a place similar to hell. But 
when recalling some passage of Scripture, "Vengeance is mine, 



8o THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

I will repay, thus saith the Lord," and also recalling the verses 
contained in the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians. 

NO NEED FOR A DEVIL. 

If one should draw his conclusion of the future state of man 
by the much need of charity, as described in the chapter by the 
inspired w^riter, where he advised all those people who had been 
tormented b\' such evil-doers to exercise charity. Knowing that in 
the goodness of God he would receive charity and he will provide 
a purgatory that eventually all might be saved and the Devil's 
business would come to an end. While some believe in a personal 
Devil, as far as the writer's experience goes with men, there is no 
need of a Devil, as all the attributes which men possess are suf- 
ficient without any outside influence. Some may diflfer and pre- 
fer to believe in a Devil. I know of a class-leader who became 
annoyed by the many excuses offered in justification of their 
deeds because of having been tempted by the Evil One. He ad- 
vised them not to lay any more on the Devil than he was guilty 
of, as he was guilty of enough. This custom of blaming some one 
else began six thousand yeads ago in the garden of Eden, and I 
have no doubt, if you were to ask every man in State prison or 
who had gone astra}', he would blame some one for it. This is 
true, for it would be impossible to be otherwise while there are 
any other people in the world besides himself. If there was no 
one but you and the Devil, (if there be one) then you would be 
influenced by the Devil. As long as raan ignores the principle of 
free moral agency to govern his acts, there will always be the 
need of a Devil for some people to excuse themselves, so long 
will hell be advocated. 

By being assigned to future punishment, there is need of a 
Devil, as it is important that he should have something to do for 
those who think his way, but it is easy for every man to imagine 
his own Devil by his own way of thinking, or his own hell by his 
acts, and the torments of hell are largely governed according to 
his education or moral and spiritual lines ; therefore, his conscience 
is awakened to the rights of others. For this reason, it would be 
impossible to make conscience a true moral guide in governing 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 8 1 

his actions. Therefore, every man carries with him his earthly 
hell according to what he thinks of himself and what he thinks 
people think of him. If it be true in the application of this pas- 
sage, *'As the tree falleth, so it lieth," man takes with him his 
own hell and he cannot pay his moral conscience debt by blaming 
some one else or the Devil. He simply goes where he belongs, as 
in the parable of the sheep and the goats. On this earth, it is hard 
to separate them, as the classes referred to are with us and aniong 
us and they will entice the boy or man by instilling a taste for 
tobacco or liquor. Then we have with us a class who entice the 
boy mentally by distributing obscene literature to excite his pas- 
sions. I have recently heard of ten tons of this literature being 
captured by Anthony Comstock, which no doubt, if the same had 
been permitted to be circulated, would have been the means of 
making thousands of hells for young men and girls. No doubt 
the author and printer of such literature will go around in good 
:society and pass themselves off as good citizens, but when arrested 
and their names brought out before the public, they carry with 
them their own hell. This could not be said of Anthony Com- 
stock, by the preventing of such literature, that it would make 
him carry heaven with him because it was right to do what he 
did. If he had neglected his duty through some political influ- 
ence, or had taken a $ioo bill and let it go through, he might have 
carried with him his earthly hell, which might be illustrated by 
citing Lincoln who, when riding in a stage and seeing a mother 
hog in trouble with her young, where she had gone to wallow in the 
mud. Her little ones had become fastened in the mud, and Mr. Lin- 
coln got out and lifted everyone of them out of the mire. When 
asked why he did so he replied that he did it to relieve his own con- 
science ; thereby, he did a selfish act. If there was more of this 
selfish work done, there would be many hells turned into heavens 
by assisting in lifting some mother's sons from the low slums, 
mud and quicksands that cover the entire world and are slowly 
but surely ensnaring millions of young men in times that will 
eventually draw them into pits, whirlpools and uttermost depths 
of depravity. 

This proves the necessity of those who have their millions or 
lesser amounts, to assist in distributing literature, to educate the 



82 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

masses to a higher and nobler purpose than that which engages the 
present generation. By so doing, the problem of who will go to hell 
or who will go to heaven may be solved. When the noted states- 
man was dying, he was asked what had afforded him the greatest 
amount of pleasure during his life, his reply was, "In doing good 
to others." This life is made up of good and bad deeds. We 
get our pay as we journey along. This is in accordance with the 
law that governs the human race that by sowing a thought you 
reap an act, by sowing an act you reap a habit, by sowing a habit 
you reap a character, by sowing a character you reap a destiny. 
Whether we imgine there is a hell or not, there is but little sinful 
pleasure practiced, but what the person sinning has to pay for it 
during his life in some form, whether it be in the loss of reputa- 
tion, the worriment of mind or the prick of conscience for not 
practicing on others what he would not like done to him, thereby 
doing right to all people as you would have them do to you ; then 
life would be much happier in this world and the world beyond 
and by living right they will die right. 



THE NECESSITY OF A NEW POLITICAL PARTY. 




THK PLATFORM. — SOME GOOD REASONS EOR ITS FORMATION. 



The above cut is in accordance with the characteristic tendency 
of the human race to assemble themselves together and make 
laws and resolve to stand by them, and because of the inclination 
of the animal part of man, these resolutions fail, and because of 
the well-known traits which have been previously described, man 
rises to protect his rights by applying to law, for, as Blackstone 
says, "Laws are founded on common sense, reason and justice." 

But we know that the animal has but little reason and if the 
laws are made and enforced by the propensities of man with 
animal instinct, justice will be perverted and our only hope is in 
individual sovereignty as the individual comprises the nation, and 
our government was and is for the people and by the people and 
is maintained in the interests of the people ; our safety is in those 
who stand by the Constitution. For we know that the law was 
made for the good of the people and as good is of God and God 
never changes, then it is a useless act on the part of men to attempt 
to make laws contrary to God's laws in the way of managing 
government affairs. The same has always proven a failure, lead- 

83 



^4 the: twentieth century age of reason. 

ing to disruptiire and discontent. The authenticity of these facts 
is proven in bibHcal research, so that men in our day and genera- 
tion know that the Hfe of a Nation depends on its conducting its 
affairs on those principles. 

Because of the faihire on the part of our government to meet 
the wants of a large majority of the people, there is a great un- 
rest. The present condition must create anxiety for the outcome 
of future posterity. 

Herein is a demand for a new political party prompted by the 
natural law that has prompted man to rise to our present condi- 
tion which so many believe now to be the best government on 
earth, while with many others there is great need of advancement 
to make it an ideal government and as the Republican party was 
formed to meet the needs of that day wherein slavery was abol- 
ished. 

So there is need of a new party in order that an ideal govern- 
ment may furnish what every home desires. As it is now, every 
family is endangered by the great evils now threatening the life 
of this nation. Evils born of the so-called social custom, and on 
the race question. We need protection from what is constantly 
liappening from the colored race. 

These conditions we now have and the attempt to change a con- 
dition by education is next to an impossibility. While we retain 
the evils that produced these conditions, to do that you must 
change human nature and that is impossible, for God has made 
liim to be governed by fixed laws, such as govern all other animals 
in the universe. It would be as inconsistent as to attempt to edu- 
cate a man not to eat a thing when he is hungry and food is set 
before him to entice him. 

The desire to acquire knowledge and partake of forbidden 
fruit, the same as in the days of Adam, when he partook of the 
fruit. Knowing this to be true, we should act as Horace Greeley 
says, ''The way to resume is to resume, aad the way to abolish is 
to abolish." Not by degrees, for every attempt made on that line 
is sure to fail and we have no record where Christ attempted to 
do anything by halves. To do otherwise would be egotistical on 
our part. We would belike those who try to improve on Christ's 
way of doing things. 



THE TVVI^NTIETII CKNTURV AGE) 01^ REASON. S^^ 

This nation claims to bo a Christian nation, and if it does not 
condnct itself on these ]irinciples, then it is a hyocritical nation 
and we are attempting- to (\o bnsiness in disgnise nnder a Repub- 
lican form of government, for we know that the constitution and 
laws adopted and enacted on the principles of Christ, and think 
of the Mosaic law in comparison w^ith the license liquor traffic in 
this land of Christianity. Think of the Republican party in which 
the Christian Church of the great North and West sui^jXM-ting the 
liquor traffic of to-day. 

Surely they must believe that we are living in the days of mir- 
acles. Christ had a great dislike for hyj^ocrites, and is it any won- 
der, while the inconsistency of so many who profess to be his fol- 
lowers su])port our present mode of voting. 

As well might a man ])lant black beans and expect to grow 
white (Mies. This is an experimental age. but the same imiversal 
l:n\' must l)e complied with by the human race the same as that 
which governs the vegetable kingdom. We do not expect to see 
figs grow on thistles and do not wait to see the wonders of the 
Lord revealed b\' acting contrar\- io the principles given in God's 
word. 

But there always have been such people since the days of Judas 
Iscariot to betray their trust. Then th.ere are men who depend on 
others to tell them what to do: and others, who, because some one 
else does so. they do so; and the Scri])tures compares them to 
sheep which have gone astray. ( M' course, they must have some 
nitch to till or they nex'cr wcmUl have been born, but it ma)' re(|uire 
some faith to accept all these m\steries that are so designed by 
our Creator. 

It is not unlike the man who IkuI thirteen children and the last 
one he named Judas Iscariot. On being asked why he did so, he 
replied, "He had better never been born." wiiich was what Christ 
said of Judas when he betrayed him. 

\\ hy 1 advocate the organization of a new partv is because of 
the long-continuance of evils and corru{)tion in the old parties 
and their influence on business interests and being entrenched, 
the\- bring ])ressure to secure a class legislation backed bv lar 



o-e 



sums of money and often the lawmakers are interested themselves 
in the same business. The Republican party has practically had 



86 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

control of national affairs since the Civil war and it emerged into 
a wave which in itself begets a large amount of corruption, such 
as is being practiced to-day. 

Again there is so much dead wood connected with it that it is 
is impossible for it to meet the requirements and needs of the 
human race of this present day. Therefore, there is great need 
of a new organization to enforce the law of displacement, which is 
being mechanically worked, but does not in any way meet the 
needs and requirements of the industries of this age. 

Invention cannot fill the demand by patching up of the old 
parties. There must be a new organization of good men outside 
of any of the existing political parties, before there can be any 
permanent effect, because every new man joining either of the 
old parties sooner or later becomes the tool of the party of machin- 
ery that has power to continue its future corrupting influences. 
Those good men become the creatures of circumstances and are 
subjected to the universal law, the stronger power controlling the 
weaker. 

For this reason it is impossible for any municipal reform to suc- 
ceed for the simple reason that the physical part of man is sub- 
jected to the animal needs and the offices are so few to supply 
that a great number who seek office are naturally disappointed 
and will not continue in such a movement. They very naturally 
drift back to their own party froni which they received their 
former sustenance. 

We believe that it will be impossible to secure honest municipal 
government until a new party comes to the front. Good munici- 
pal government once secured by a new organization, will soon 
accomplish the work of purif}ing the government of the state 
and nation, as the many cities can control the nation. Another rea- 
son is that the corrupt element seeks refuge on the reputation of 
the national party, which has a past history, worthy of repetition, 
and when the work becomes slack and a few old patrons die off 
they are ready to secure the spoils because the new one lacks ex- 
perience. Good municipal government once secured by an honest 
national party will do more than a party that would rather live on 
what it has done. 

Therefore, I believe a new national political party is needful, 



the; twentieth century age of reason. 87 

with a platform permanently pledged against all evils, and to in- 
clude all that will benefit the nation at large. If we want a thor- 
oughly honest government, we must have a thoroughly honest 
political part}', for the elective power is always the idol of the 
governmental power, and even bad men will, to a certain extent, 
cater to the wishes of the successful righteous political party, hop- 
ing for a re-election as long as the righteous political party holds 
the balance wheel of the election. 

If the reader will fall in line with my thinking of the law, of 
cause and effect, and that the present conditions grow out of the 
transgression of the moral law and the method of releasing the 
slave, when the public became aroused to the great evil of traffic. 
Lincoln was not capable of grappling with such a problem, be- 
cause of the same disposition of graft and greed existing among 
the Northern people as with the Southerners. All they wanted 
was an opportunity to do the same and the Civil war furnished a 
chance to bring forth the latent propensity of the animal, which 
proved too great when the opportunity came to them. 

There were many Northern States that held slaves, but they 
gave them their freedom because they were not profitable, as cot- 
ton could not be raised with profit, and as the same republic grew 
out of greed, you could not expect the Northern people to be any 
dift'erent from the Southern, when the opportunity made it pos- 
sible for the Emancipation Proclamation, the North secured the 
colored race's support. 

The South had been controlling as many votes as they had male 
slaves. The North acted on the same principle by giving them the 
right of franchise. How can you expect a reformation, politi- 
cally, when the same propensities exist with the Northern people, 
and they are as ready to enslave people, if it will pay, as the slave- 
holders were. In proof of this there are many Northern people 
going south and erecting cotton mills who have and are imploring 
the Legislature not to make laws to prohibit child labor, so that 
they may take the child from its parents and make money out of 
child labor, when they should be cared for by their parents and 
sent to school and be kept from the foul air of the mills that the 
physical body might develop into men and women of norma) 
stature. 



88 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

j\Iany of the mill owners are from the State of Massachusetts,, 
where the Christian religion was planted on the Plymouth Rock. 
As space will not permit me to say much about child labor in 
America, I will refer the reader, if interested, to a much fuller 
account, given in Wilsher's Magazine, September number of 1902. 
However, I will tell why South Carolina cannot abolish child 
labor. It is because the mill owners who live in New England 
insist upon its continuance. They have invested millions of dol- 
lars in South Carolina with the understanding that there shall be 
no State Inspectors of mills or interference in any way with the 
management of employes. 

At each election the candidates for the Legislature secretly 
promise that they will not pass a law forbidding child labor. 
Otherwise, they could not hope for election. The capitalists com- 
bine with the crackers and any man who favors the restriction 
of child labor is marked. While we pose as a Christian nation, 
we are ready to engage in war on slight provocatfon. We should 
be peaceful. The Christian religion ought to put away the sword. 
The Bible says : "The sword shall be bent into plow shares and 
spears into pruning hooks, and all nations shall know I am of 
God." 

A few years ago England warred with the Boers. This doubt- 
less would not have occurred but for men like Cecil Rhodes, who 
coveted the rich diamond fields. Nor would there have been war 
in the Philippines but for the desire to obtain possession of their 
rich mines and valuable timber. The latter war has proven a 
costly way to keep the Republican party in power. McKinley 
should not have ordered this war on a heathen nation. It began 
and continued during the second Presidential campaign of Mc- 
Kinley. There was a time when it seemed doubtful as to whom 
would be elected, but the old cry was raised, ''Never make a 
change m the administration during a war," as the saying: ''Never 
swap horses while crossing a stream." Yet McKinley's Christian 
character was immortalized. If there again comes a time when 
it seems impossible to continue the Republican party in power, 
the Republicans, like Alexander, will weep because there were no 
more worlds to conquef. They will weep for want of a war. 
How could we expect better of McKinley when he was pos- 



the: twentieth century age oe reason. 89 

sessed of all the attributes that belong to men that have been de- 
scribed? Besides, he was subject to the influence of thousands 
of others, who were of the same human disposition as himself. 
If war is essential to keep in power, they did the right thing to 
send the battleship Maine into the harbor of Havana. When 
questioned they must have surmised that there was plenty of 
deadly mines of torpedoes. As an evidence, the captain of the 
Maine must have been endowed with an intution that led him to 
feel better satisfied on terra firma than on the ship. 

It would have looked more philanthropic for our nation to have 
purchased the freedom of the Cul^ans than to go to war and give 
them their freedom. I cannot see any opportunity for another 
war, although Vv'e are well prepared by our large navy, and it 
might be as the boy that had a gun and wanted to shoot, whether 
he had any occasion to or not. 

It seems there has always been a strong propensity in the make- 
up of man when there is an opportunity for him to be benefitted 
by the sacrifice of another man or nation to avail himself of the 
opportunity, hence he vv^ill often interfere and pose as a peace- 
maker, while at the same time the public look on him not as a 
philanthropist but as I have plainly shown when opportunities are 
presented, they are unable to withstand the temptation. 

As I have said, it is very difficult for man under the regime we 
are now living to withstand the opportunities that are presented 
to him for graft, and the same blood runs in the veins of all states- 
men when they can see far enough ahead and play their part so 
as to be benefitted. One man alone is bad enough under his normal 
conditions, but when you put a body of men together whose brains 
are inflated with the effects of alcoholic stimulants and they have 
the fate of the nation in their hands, is it not time for the sufferers 
to cry aloud and spare not? 

Jonah was commanded to go to Nineveh, the wicked citv, but 
he preferred to go to Tarsus. Is this not like our Christian nation, 
seeking some way to avoid saying anything about the liquor traf- 
fic ? It is a well-known fact that when resolutions were passed em- 
powering McKinley to begin war on the Philippines, we did not 
wonder that they rebelled. When you force on any people the vile 
liquid stuff and then attempt to deprive them of their liberty, you 



90 TtlE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

must expect them to rebel, for there is an inherent desire for lib- 
erty in every living creature. They were disgracing the very pur- 
pose for which we. as a nation, fought for in the Revolutionary 
war, and, as it is with one man, so it is with a nation. A person 
will foreclose a mortgage often when there is no occasion for it. 
A man will slander another or blackmail him if he is to be benefit- 
ted thereby. Men often become revengeful because they feel they 
have been deceived and they want to get revenge. 

If one man alone had to do this he would not be thought cow- 
ardly, for all the responsibility would rest on him, but if you put 
a number of men together, they will act more courageously. A 
wolf will not attempt to tackle a beast larger than himself, but if 
a dozen wolves get together they will become more courageous. 
On this principle a body of men can apparently pass a law that 
they know their fellowmen will be injured and apparently do so 
with impunity, as our o^overnment has done in making it legal to 
export liquor to the Philippines and Alaska ; also the dispensing 
of liqupr in the soldiers' homes and the Honolulu Islands and 
with great reluctancy, abolished the canteen from the army ; there- 
fore, there is no other way to prevent evils growing, except by 
preventing the human race from making conditions that foster 
and strengthen evil. This can be illustrated by the downfall of 
many noted statesmen ; men get together and compromise on ques 
tionable acts, such as may indirectly be the cause of the downfall 
of a son or husband or lead to the murder of an unfaithful hus- 
band or wife. Or it may lead to legal suit wherein thousands of 
dollars are at stake but because they cannot be directly traced to 
the guilty one, they go scott free. 

If the railroad companies injure any one by their employes, 
they are held responsible. Should not those who grant license to 
sell liquor be held responsible ? They know as well as the farmer 
who sows the seed and expects a crop. If the reader will turn 
to the statistical reports of those in jails and almshouses he will 
perceive the truthfulness of this kind of reasoning. Or if the 
merchant opens up a place of business you expect him to turn out 
the kind of ware he advertises. There are certain kinds of manu- 
facturers whose products make people happy. They should be 
exempt from any tax ; but the man who causes others to go home 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 9I 

and beat their wives and commit murder is compelled to pay 
$500.00 for the privilege of manufacturing that kind of brutes. 

I have attempted to show that the whole human race is strug- 
gling to acquire the greatest amount of happiness during their 
lives. Now is it not incumbent on the part of those who have in 
their power the weal or woe of man by creating environments to 
protect them from stumbling into pits of quagmire and quicksand 
and constantly annoying others by their conduct, by contracting 
large amounts of debts and making it impossible for others to meet 
their obligations, making unreliable labor to annoy the various 
manufacturers who are compelled to employ them. Should they 
not in some way be made responsible just as the railroad compan- 
ies are ? It requires the signatures of twelve responsible men who 
own real estate before he can get a license. That man who is un- 
able to withstand such temptation might ask why do those in of- 
fice do things in the way of making laws and enforcing them that 
will produce the greatest good to the greatest number of people. 
The reason it is not done is because it is in politics and as the evils 
therein politics, the people who want these privileges, they make 
the demand because they have a following of voters, as the people 
who want a change, they keep on voting with them for something 
they do not want. If some should not be able to determine how to 
vote by referring to a book entitled "The Monitor," giving twenty- 
four reasons why I am a Prohibitionist, they might obtain some 
knowledge. 

There are others who desire a change but they believe the 
licensing is profitable in helping them to pay their tax, but if you 
could convince them to the contrary, the liquor traffic would not 
be tolerated. Then there are others who believe it is beneficial to 
have it manufactured because the same is helpful to make a market 
for the grain. To all such I would say as did the old lady when 
the question was asked, what they would do when all the corn 
was gone? Her reply was to make it into starch to stift'en up the 
men's backbones. — By so doing they would come to a knowledge 
that if this nation did not consume it herself and send the same 
away to other nations, the price of the same would add that much 
to our nation's wealth-making, $1,200,000,000 annually, and the 
other nations that drank it would be that much the poorer. It 



92 THU TWDNTIKTH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

might be illustrated by the three Irishmen who bought a barrel 
of liquor. One was appointed cashier and each paid ten cents for 
each drink, and doing so until the contents were used up. But 
they wondered what had become of the money when they wanted 
to buy more. This illustrates the liquor traffic in our nation. The 
more we drink the poorer we are, because the purchaser does not 
get any value for his money. The nation receives no value from 
the labor which is needed to produce an unnecessary beverage; 
neither does the laborer, if the money he earns is spent for liquor, 
as a beverage. 

Men will so jealously guard their rights that if a reform party 
should bid any prospects of advancement, every man that holds 
an office in the old parties is ready to knife it, if possible. 

Senator Colby, of Essex County, New Jersey, who was re- 
cently elected on a reform movement, because of his aggressive 
stand against the railroad company, that was infringing on the 
rights of the people, secured his election by a meagre vote. One 
of the leading daily papers, whose editor held a political position, 
in giving an account of the same, said: "There was only an at- 
tendance of 153 out of a population of 153,000. One-half of the 
number was composed of Republicans and a part composed of 
Democrats." I would naturally not expect a very glowing report 
as we are convinced that he possesses his full share of human 
nature. 

During Philadelphia's hottest campaign fight it is reported the 
same editor said : "There is nothing in the McNichols and Dur- 
ham case," and by reading between the lines it looks as though 
he appreciated his city office and was fearful lest there be a reform 
wave that would come over the river and it should be nipped in 
time. But if this be true, we believe him to be better than many 
other men for he had advocated reform and is right on the liquor 
question. This may be because he believed that if it continued 
to exist at the pace it is now going, it would eventually destroy 
the Republican party, and in case it should, he might be classed 
as the acknowledged Camden Boss, whose native home is across 
the sea, who has a way of expressing himself — ''I am wid you 
boys," and when the new party comes into power to abolish this 
liquid damnation he would still be counted as being with them. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 93 

If SO, it would be a sample of history repeating itself, for there 
was a time when there were many worthy citizens who identified 
themselves with the Prohibition party, but owing to the great 
political powers, has in keeping both Republicans and Democrats 
alive. They drift back to the party of spoils. 

We welcome Senator Colby here again, as we believe there 
is much need of showing up the political corruption. It will 
do others good as well as himself, as he will learn that as long as 
the two political parties are kept alive he will meet the fate of all 
past reformers, and if he expects success, he must come out from 
among thm and be separate and form a political party that will 
not uphold the licensing of the liquor traffic, for that is the only 
live issue w^orth considering. 

There are many evidences of success when there are but two 
political parties to fight. One for and the other against ; and to 
attempt to make a success in the political arena, in any other way, 
would be like the man of whom the Scriptures speak: "He that 
attempts to get in any other way is a thief and a robber." He who 
attempts to act as a reformer when it is clear that his object is to 
secure the spoils of office without making the home of the nation 
happier, is like one who receives compensation without giving 
value. The prohibition of the liquor traffic is based upon the 
principles of Christ, who was not crucified for His rehgion but 
because He condemned the people for the way in which they 
transgressed the laws of God. Are not people doing the same 
thing in these days as then? They apparently do not realize it, 
but by ignoring the principles of prohibition in their platform, 
they are. If our nation should cease receiving revenue and our 
cities cease licensing the traffic, it would not be tolerated in this 
intelligent age, no more than our authorities would tolerate a mad 
dog on the public streets. The liqiior traffic is unlike slavery. 
Many who seek to abolish it often compare it to the slave traffic, 
but there is scarcely any similarity, as slavery was one man deal- 
ing in another. But the liquor business first enslaves the appetite 
and then transforms man into a maniac, which is not to be won- 
dered at. 

For any poison, if you take enough at a time, will disarrange 
the whole svstem, for it cannot be naturallv assimilated. That is 



94 the: TW12NTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

Nature's way of disposing of things which cannot be food because 
it is unnatural to the system ; as such it is an intruder, a robber 
and all your nerves become agitated and you desire to dispel it 
from your system at first, but after a short acquaintance with the 
intruder you become reconciled and apparently enter into partner- 
ship with him in your own destruction. He has deceived you and 
is like him of whom the Scriptures speak: "Whosoever drinketh 
w4ne is deceived thereby and is not wise." And because of its 
deceptive nature it not only deceives those who imbibe but often 
deceives the taxpayers and good citizens. They say it is better to 
accept a half a loaf from the old political parties. They have 
given us all the temperance w^e have, which would cause one to 
wonder how much less drunkenness we would have if they had 
licensed 200,000 saloons instead of 250,000. 

By such delusions as licensing the evil as a temperance meas- 
ure we are reminded of the story of the hunter, stating he shot 
a deer through his foot and through his ear, and when questioned 
how he did it, called on his darkey to explain, who said : ''J^^^t as 
Massa put up his gun to pull on the trigger, the deer put up him 
foot to scratch him ear, and Massa pulled on the trigger and the 
ball went right through him foot and through him ear." But the 
darkey afterward cautioned his Master never to tell such a whop- 
per, as he had a hard time to get it together. If those who be- 
lieve that the abolishment of the liquor traffic is to be accomplished 
by the Republican party, accepting the half-loaf principle, even 
though the half is poison, they will have to use the oil of decep- 
tion to accomplish this old gag much longer, and as it is evident 
the liquor traffic owes its existence to-day to the cry of *'You 
can't," and the same has been handed down like an endless chain. 
One would not suppose a person in the consciousness of being 
would practically sell their votes to a party for something they 
do not want. We have been reaping just what we have sown, 
and if this is to go on, human nature will never learn until the 
law of retribution compels them. One would suppose we all have 
sufficient training and power given us to lead us to act reason- 
able, but it is useless to expect a political party to make any 
change as long as they are successful in winning, regardless of 
how, whether it be by the 2,500,000 saloon votes and the 2,000,000 



THiC TWKNTIKTII CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 95 

colored votes, and the Republican party is responsible for and 
largelv receives support from both, because of our Republican 
form of government, that all men should vote, then there should 
be but two parties, one to champion the issues that have to do 
with the morals and ethics held by the human race. 

Otherwise, if left to church and a reform party the two old 
parties will use their influence to cause both to go out of business 
by dragging the church down to their level, and men will give 
their support to the party he and his friends are connected with. 
Thereby, the old propensities are carried into effect, and we as a 
nation, settle down to two party principles, there will be something 
doing in the way of causing man to rise to a higher state of per- 
fection. Our condition causes one to wonder if there ever will 
be any other party that the bishops, ministers and laymen can 
vote with without stulifying their conscience, thereby accomplish- 
ing the purpose for which the Republican party was formed, will 
assume the propriety of suggesting a name for the same, it being 
True Republican, thereby the significance of the word "True" 
should be sufficient to inspire every voter that the party they rep- 
resent is in accordance w^ith the definition of its name ; or it may 
be that some reader can conceive of a more appropriate name to fill 
the gap of our nation's need ; if not, the author would suggest the 
name of Monitor, as an appropriate name for our present and 
future condition, as the true meaning of ''monitor" is described 
by Webster as "one who governs." 

ISSUE PROPOSED FOR THE NEW POLITICAL PARTY. 

For direct legislation under the system known as the Initiative 
and Referendum. 

Under the "Initiative" the people can require that any desired 
law shall be submitted to them for a vote, when, if it receives a 
majority of the votes cast, it will be thereby enacted. 

Under the Referendum the people can require that any law 
which has been adopted by a Legislature shall, before becoming 
operative, be submitted to a vote of the people for their approval 
or rejection, when, if such law fail to secure a majority of the votes 
cast, it will be thereby rejected. The granting of this privilege 
should not be left to the power of the Legislature, but should be 



9^ THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

made a law that any county or state could have the power when 
one-tenth of the voters sign a petition for the same. 

Therefore, as the only method by which the people can secure 
relief from existing evils, and establish a government which will 
protect all persons in the enjoyment of their natural rights, and 
promote the welfare, happiness and morality of the people, I would 
recommend in securing the right to vote on questions by a direct 
legislation, to secure the right to have an election should be by 
petition by one-tenth of the votes from each State, and the issue 
to be voted upon should be taken up a year from the time granted 
to vote upon the question, and the election should be held after the 
fall election. If the result of the election should be that the amend- 
ment failed to receive a majority of votes, it shall remain as before 
for a term of six^ years, as such questions as the manufacture and 
sale of liquors, and the issuing of greenback notes, and the Im- 
migrant Question, which are all national questions, and should be 
submitted to the people by a national election. 

I would recommend that all legal newspapers be compelled to 
print all articles for and against the amendment, if so requested 
by the person paying for the same, and these charges not to ex- 
ceed the usual rate. 

I would recommend that the term of the President of the United 
States be six years, also the United States Senator. 

The election of Judges at the Fall election. 

The Prohibition of Trusts when their capital exceeds a million. 

Prohibiting immigration to the unqualified. 

The government to appropriate twenty millions annually for 
five consecutive years for educational purposes as previously re- 
ferred to. 

The issuing of greenbacks by the government in limited quanti- 
ties per capita to be legal tender for both public and private debts. 

The right of franchise and its qualifications. 

The manufacture and sale of liquor to be controlled by the gov- 
ernment. All municipal franchises to be controlled by the city. 

The prohibiting of a company or person from owning more than 
two thousand acres of land. 

The whipping post to become a law where intoxicating liquor 
is sold. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 97 

Curfew law to be enforced in every city of 3000 inhabitants. 
All labor trouble to be settled by arbitration. 
All differences between nations to be settled by arbitration. 
These issues would help to secure votes for the new party. 

THE PROBLEM OF THE HOUR. 

~ BY WILLIAM E. JOHNSON. 

The year 1855 registered the high water mark of the temper- 
ance reform in the United States. The remarkable campaigns of 
the American Temperance Society, the American Temperance 
Union, the tidal wave of the Washington movement, and the whirl- 
wind tours of Father Mathew and John B. Gough had followed 
each other in rapid succession. Total abstinence fraternal organi- 
zations sprung from the ground like frogs in Egypt, until their 
members were not thousands but hundreds of thousands. In this 
twenty years' succession of triumphs. Cabinet Ministers took the 
stump making temperance speeches. Presidents of the United 
States not only came out to temperance meetings and applauded, 
but practically every one of the period signed a joint state- 
ment warning the people against the use of strong drink. The 
hialls of Congress were thrown open to temperance meetings, while 
Representatives and Senators in large numbers took a prominent 
part in nightly rallies in the vicinity of their homes as well as in 
places convenient to the National Capitol. 

Prohibition Governors and Legislatures were elected. Industry 
had condemned the traffic to death. Ships without liquor plowed 
every sea. The temperance reform came down to the year 1855, 
with thirteen States under total prohibition, and most of the others 
imder stringent local option laws. The horizon was widening 
upon a drinkless nation. 

But all this miracle of reality and prospect was crucified in that 
Golgotha of the Civil War. There the clock of the temperance 
reform was turned backward for half a century. 

During this entire period of remarkable successes, there was ab- 
solutely no internal revenue tax either upon the traffic or upon the 
production of any form of alcohol. The traffic was absolutely free 
except in the laws of the various States. High license was un- 
kno^vn. There were no entanglements of revenue. The traffic had 



98 the: twentieth century age of reason. 

not then entangled itself in the labyrinth of party politics. It was 
not barricaded behind the revenue. It stood naked and alone, sub- 
ject to the direct attacks of the people. It had to defend itself on 
its merits — and it had no merits. Hence its defenceless situation. 

Moreover, in this period, the use of alcohol in the arts and in- 
dustries began coming into common use, chiefly in the manufac- 
tures. The production of this drug amounted to about 30,000,000 
gallons annually, most of which was used in the arts. Processes 
of denaturation were then unknown, but even in the face of this, 
there is no evidence that the industrial use of alcohol in any way 
interfered with the temperance reform. The temperance leaders 
of the times recognized the legitimate use of alcohol and were suc- 
cessfully diverting the product out of beverage and into the indus- 
trial use, thus working along the lines of least resistance. The 
whole temperance literature of this twenty year period does not 
disclose a single complaint from any temperance reformer that 
this industrial use of alcohol in any manner operated against their 
efforts. 

The war revenue law of 1862, by taxing the industrial alcohol 
in precisely the same manner as the beverage traffic operated, of 
course, to practically destroy all legitimate uses of the product. 
Under the shelter of this abnormal tax, there grew up the wood 
alcohol industry which supplied a very inferior and much more ex- 
pensive substitute. 

For a quarter of a century, the drink traffic in this country has 
existed chiefly through its ability to entangle itself with other is- 
sues. It has hidden itself behind the legitimate uses of alcohol, it 
has barricaded itself behind the revenues by paying largely the 
taxes, it has entwined itself into the labyrinth of party politics, it 
has somewhat lulled the conscience of the church by contributions 
to religious and charitable purposes. For twenty-five years no one 
has said that the drink traffic was a good thing that ought to live ; 
they have said that it was a necessary evil to be temporarily toler- 
ated, because to uproot it would upset the existing order of things. 

The problem of the hour then is merely to break down these in- 
trenchments which have sheltered the beverage traffic during all 
these years, compel it to stand naked and alone on its merits, as it 
did prior to the Civil War. We must multiply the enemies of the 
traffic. 



DOES THE USE OF TOBACCO CAUSE RAILROAD 
ACCIDENTS? 

Many treat the question with indifference, but, so great is the 
consumption of tobacco in its various forms it should be worthy 
of reflection. 

We know that railroads and trolleys are the chief mode of loco- 
motion. This shows the importance of the companies giving the 
question more than a passing thought, or merely providing a 
smoking car for certain patrons. It ■ is equally important that 
those who do not indulge should be considered. The whole world 
is more or less subject to cause and effect. 

For the want of a nail a shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe 
a horse was lost, for the want of a horse a driver was lost. The 
whole business world is controlled by the profit and loss principle, 
and all railroad companies are subject to a greater risk. The 
loss in dollars is the practical business side in railroad companies. 
Many losses which occur are not traceable to the direct cause, but 
it is evident that the secret of success is in the management, which 
requires the best intellect. 

This is proven by the high salaries paid. While the higher 
salaried man may be planning and scheming how he may extend 
and enlarge the business ; the whole secret of success is in what 
is saved. The savings can only be secured by the best intellect. 
The management is dependent upon subordinates. Is a subor- 
dinate who uses tobacco benefited? If not, tobacco must be an 
injury to him. There is no neutral ground. All authorities on 
medical works and on hygiene and health say the use of tobacco 
is injurious. 

This being true, it might be well to ascertain the extent a per- 
son deteriorates through the use of tobacco. It is conclusive that 
the use of tobacco is injurious. 

A person who pays railroad fare wants the best protection pos- 
sible. As the physical part of man is affected by the use of 

99 

LOFC. 



lOO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

tobacco, the first organ of deterioration would be his brain, which 
is all there is of a man, in a true sense. As tobacco is not food 
and no nutrition is received from its use, it must hinder the de- 
velopment of the brain. This has been proven by the boy and 
y^oung man who use tobacco in any form. 

According to nature, we can develop the body by using the 
things intended by our Creator. It is useless for man to attempt 
to add to his happiness or development by violating nature's laws. 
'God created us with one appetite. Acquiring an appetite for 
tobacco or liquor is like fastening a clog to a person. This is 
proven by the effect tobacco produces on the nervous system. As 
soon as the eft'ect of its action on the heart is relaxed, the nerves 
feel the need of a stimulant. To produce this effect more tobacco 
must be used in order to quicken the movement of the heart. Eigh- 
teen beats per minute must be added in order to circulate the 
blood and stimulat the nerves, and attempting to add to yourself 
by the use of tobacco or intoxicating liquors is like putting spurs 
to a horse, you wear him out the sooner. 

Having three eyes or three hands or three legs would not ben- 
efit you ; the railroad companies want men as God created them, 
and not abnormal men, by adding another appetite. If you had an 
■employe, you demand all his time and talent ; and if by the use of 
tobacco he deteriorates in value, he is that much less valuable to 
you. 

Mistakes are frequent enough with the best of men. A mis- 
take by a man employed on the railroad means much more than 
a mistake by a person engaged in some other occupation. Life 
and property are at stake. 

The use of tobacco creates a desire for liquor. Ninety-nine 
out of every hundred persons addicted to liquor used tobacco first. 
It is very evident that one-half the intemperance to-day was 
caused by tobacco. This being true, it is reasonable to suppose 
that the companies would prevent over half the railroad accidents, 
which are attributed to the use of intoxicating liquors, and per- 
haps many could be prevented by abstaining from the use of 
tobacco. Railroad accidents are more likely to be caused by per- 
sons who use tobacco than by a non-user. 

The action of tobacco as an opiate is in its nature and causes 



THi: TWENTiElTH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. lOI 

a person to be less astute to danger. The mind is distracted by 
this physical annoyance the user has ; further, the attention is 
diverted. 

Mv reason for making this long appeal to railroad companies 
to prohibit the use of these two narcotics is that from observation 
of and contact with people who use them, I find they do not take 
sufficient precaution. The successful general uses his best men 
where the danger is the greatest. I would be unfaithful to my 
duty if I failed to warn those who assume responsibility of carry- 
ing the traveling public safely to their destination. 

We often read of one accident followed by another. I might 
refer to the Harrisburg wreck caused by explosion; to the acci- 
dent at Mentor, Ohio, caused by running into a switch, and to 
another caused by logs falling on a track. By exercising precau- 
tion they might have been prevented. As accidents are prevented 
by one's thinking, less accidents would result from better think- 
ing. Precaution might have saved the railroad companies over 
a million dollars and prevented great loss of life. 

While it is reported that the accidents were not the result of 
intemperance, the writer has inquired into the habits of those 
who had charge of these trains, and learned that there was time 
for an accident while some one was lighting his pipe or taking a 
chew of tobacco. The employe's mind was diverted while thus 
engaged. It is hard to think of two things at the same time. 
These incidents show the importance of railroad companies giv- 
ing more attention to the habits of their employes and the preser- 
vation of their health. A person with bad health is less qualified 
for an important position than if he possessed a healthy body. It 
was not intended by our Creator that we should be sickly. Not 
enjoying good health is due to a person not knowing what he 
should do to preserve health. What enters into the stomach forms 
into blood. Blood produced by good digestion will produce the 
best quality of thought. 

I assume that all persons who have in their employ men are 
wise if they see the need of doing things to produce a new regime 
of living, as the past social custom is one of the greatest hin- 
drances to success in business. 

This nation has a great many important problems in hand, but 



102 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

none more important than the condition, health and habits of those 
who run our trains, sail our ships and open and work our mines. 

OBEYING ORDERS. 

"Drop that cigarette, Mr. Gould," exclaimed E. H. Harriman, 
chairman of the executive meeting of the Board of Directors of 
the Union Pacific Railroad a few days ago. He was speaking to 
George J. Gould, director of the company. 

Mr. Gould looked astounded. He glanced out of the window 
of the company's office to see if the world had come to an end. 

"I mean it," said Mr. Harriman, severely. "I have just issued 
an order prohibiting cigarette smoking by any employee of the 
Union Pacific Railroad. You are an employee of the company — 
you get $io every time you come here. So kindly put away that 
cigarette." 

Millionaire Gould recovered from the state of daze into which 
he had been thrown. Then he slowly dropped his cigarette. 

Then Mr. Harriman, who objects to smoking of any kind, an- 
nounced that he thought men should not be directors in companies 
and make rules for others if they cannot obey those rules them- 
selves. 

Just then Millionaire Jacob H. Schiff, another director, came 
puffing at a big cigar. 

Mr. Harriman made him throw it away. 

''No smoking on Union Pacific premises," he said, "by em- 
ployees of the company." 

''Who's an employee of the company?" Mr. Schiff demanded. 

"You are," Director Harriman said. "Don't you get $io every 
time you attend a meeting?" 

The meeting was completed without tobacco. Each director as 
he came in was ordered to drop his cigar, if he had one. The 
directors took the order good naturedly, and promised to obey it 
faithfully at all future gatherings. 

The anti-cigarette rule affects thousands of men. It has been 
found necessary by the Union Pacific Railroad because cigarette 
users in its employ become "dopy" and worthless. Director Har- 



thp: twentieth century age of reason 103 

riman said recently that the company might just as well go to the 
county lunatic asylum for its employes as to retain cigarette smok- 
ers in its employ at big salaries. 

Why do the young fellows who puff cigarettes and cigars, or 
smoke filthy pipes, think of the evidence furnished by the authori- 
ties of this great railroad system? They are far removed from 
sentiment and mere prejudice. They are against the deadly weed 
because it is against their health, reliability and usefulness of their 
employes. 

IS SIN THE RESULT OF IGNORANCE OR THE HIGHER 
DEVELOPMENT OF MANKIND? 

Is sin the result of ignorance or the higher development of men 
and women? Certainly its manifestation is more apparent as the 
race advances. 

The word ''sin" has a greater meaning to the human race than 
all other words. Ever since the beginning of man the word 
''sin" has had much to do with the governing of man, because of 
man's knowledge of the Divine law. As man advances in civili- 
zation, the word "Sin" begins to loom up in the mind regarding 
the rights of others. This also applies to sin against God. 

Webster has given us a good definition of the word "Sin," but 
many make their own definition ; it might be well to consider what 
sin is in its true sense. It can only be compared to the human 
race as it is to a child. As man is only a grown up child, then we 
can only compare man to a child regarding sin. As a 
child advances in knowledge, so it is with man, as 
he advances in knowledge regarding sin. This point can 
represent the highest grade of civilization, and hence the responsi- 
bility of educating others that they may share with us in the scat- 
tering of the Father's gifts ; hence we raise millions of dollars to 
send to the heathen in order that they may know of the divine 
standards set forth in the Old and New Testaments ; by disobeying 
God's law which applies to all men as the yardstick does to all 
mercantile business or gold does to the finances of the world. Why 
is Spain, once the most powerful kingdom on earth, now the weak- 
est? Because she has ignored the principles of Christ's teachings 



I04 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

or the principles of righteousness and equity- The same is true 
of Russia. These nations failed to live in accordance with the 
principles given by the inspiration of men who have acquired 
knowledge through a process of higher development. 

Development of men mentally must be in the form of knowl- 
edge. If not so, the prophets and apostles never would have been 
able to express their thoughts and we would not have had any 
Scriptures. 

While some may say that education does not accomplish the 
purpose here claimed, as many who were educated departed from 
the principles here proposed to govern the nations and the indi- 
vidual, I assert that the good act they performed in imparting 
their knowledge had its effect ; although they might have been 
tempted a thousand times, but they held true to the principles of 
Christ. 

It is said a cable is no longer than its weakest link. The cable 
that held the vessel in many a storm was of much service while 
It lasted. The only excuse for the weak link giving way was 
that the physical and animal parts of man were too great a strain 
and the cable parted on the weak link, which is described by a 
widely known animal, the hog. But because a man broke at that 
point it should not be inferred that his whole life has gone for 
naught and all his works had proven a failure. The same might 
be applied to a renowned panacea : it might cure a thousand times 
but it might fail sometime; because it occasionally fails it does 
not destroy all its good effects and of it past merits. 

Every man has moral obligations to perform to keep his ship 
from being stranded. The only thing that will help prevent ship- 
wreck is knowledge. Knowledge rescues the mariner from the 
shoals, thereby saving many lives. Knowledge may cause one to live 
nearly all his life without committing any great sin. If we dif- 
fuse our knowledge it will cause fewer men to commit sin. At 
present a broader and more scientific knowledge seems to be the 
greatest need. There is much that has the appearance of sin. 
Some commit evil acts and do so unconsciously, which horrifies 
those who have the power of discernment and moral sense of jus- 
tice. Then you can only class sin according to the knowledge the 
person has of justice. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. IO5 

Power without knowledge is dangerous. This might be ex- 
plained by the child. It has power to do, yet doing would not be 
a sin. The colored race is causing much concern because of many 
atrocious crimes. While the negroes may know there is a penalty 
for such crimes, because of the lack of reasoning power they give 
way to the animal propensities. Then the white man, who is sup- 
posed to possess more reasoning power, says the only way to pre- 
vent such crimes is to lynch criminals, that other may take warn- 
ing. If I were to pass judgment on these two acts, I would say 
the white man commits the greater sin ; first, because he has 
knowledge, thereby breaking the Tenth Commandment ; second, 
because two wrongs never make one right ; and third, because the 
white man will sell the negro intoxicating liquors, which tend to 
arouse animal passion and blunt reasoning power, when most 
needed. These atrocious crimes will continue so long as the white 
man furnishes opportunity for the negro to procure the liquor. 
This also might apply to a man who commits a sin prohibited by 
law ; it must be a sin or a law would not be passed to prohibit it. 

The use of tobacco and cigarettes is often the result of example, 
especially in the case of boys who desire to imitate and do not 
know the injurious effects of tobacco and cigarettes. Therefore, 
the grown-up man who is supposed to have reason commits sin 
twice ; first, by example, and then because tobacco and cigarettes 
are injurious to himself. Man has no more right to injure him- 
self than he has a right to injure some one else. Man cannot live 
to himself alone. If he deteriorates, he is less valuable, and if 
sickness should result from the use of tobacco, some one is the 
loser. The nian who wilfully rushes on in sin is not only respon- 
sible for his condition, but for what he does or fails to do while 
in his demented condition. Therefore, the sin of neglect is as 
great as that of a wilful one. For example : A man who fails or 
neglects to turn a switch for a train, and it is wrecked, he has com- 
mitted a sin. The man who contracted the tobacco habit 
when a boy tied a clog to himself and committed sin. There 
are sins of omission and sins of commission, the sin of neglect, 
the sin of apathy, the premeditated sin, the sin of ignorance and 
the premature sin. The last is causing much trouble. It is well 
illustrated by the farmer who grew a peach orchard. As soon 



io6 the: twentieth century age oe reason. 

as the trees began to bear fruit, he was bothered by the boys who 
stole the fruit. After resorting to law, he found that he could 
not prevent boys from stealing. The only remedy was to remove 
the trees, thereby the temptation was removed. Some may think 
the farmer should not have sacrificed his trees. It was no sacri- 
fice as the trees were useless to him, because it was impossible to 
enforce the law sufficiently to enable him to receive any benefit. 
There would be no sacrifice on the part of the taxpayers if they 
abolished tobacco stores and saloons, as they are of no benefit to 
any one. 

The sin of omission is neglect to make men responsible for their 
acts, the same as the sin of influence. When a person knows a 
thing is an evil and continues to assist an evil because others do, 
it is a sin. 

The sin of ignorance is the result of not adopting the Mosaic 
law to-day : ''An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." There- 
by people would not be ignorant. This might be illustrated by 
the farmer who had a dog which hated cats. Every cat the dog 
found he pounced upon and killed it. The farmer decided to edu- 
cate the dog so that he would know what he was doing. The 
next time the dog killed a cat the farmer procured a rope and 
tied the dead cat to the dog, letting the dog drag the cat around 
until he became deathly sick, when he removed the cat After- 
ward the farmer never had any more trouble with the dog regard- 
ing cats. 

Those who are ignorant concerning the efi:ects of intoxicating 
liquors upon individuals also need educating. A certain noble- 
man brought home a young tiger for his children to play with. 
The animal grew up, its tiger nature developed. One day while 
playing, the beast scratched one of the children, causing the blood 
to flow. The moment the animal scented the blood all its tiger 
nature became aroused and the beast devoured the child. This is 
the condition of the human race. They are ignorant of the saloon 
plaything. Liquor destroys all that is good and honorable and 
leaves in man nothing but his tiger nature with the appetite for 
liquor fastened upon him. The brewer will live off the tiger, the 
tiger will live off the mother, who will be Compelled to go out 
washing to earn her living, and if she does not give the tiger a 
portion of her earnings she will be devoured. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. I07 

To educate the public should be the duty of those chosen to 
make laws, not to license men to destroy and murder men who 
have sold their manhood to the formation of habit which has be- 
come their master. The whole liquor business is a stench in the 
nostrils of decent men and women. In politics in city, village or 
hamlet, liquor dealers demand that five excise men be appointed, 
three to bury the corpse and two to see that the job is done prop- 
erly. In a city where men were found ignorantly dead, twelve 
men are appointed to view the bodies and hold an inquest. They 
said Mr. Smith is a suitable man to raise tigers and lions to de- 
vour the young. When they have the craving for liquor, they are 
a representative of the works but they never exhibit them. Would 
it not be well to educate the twelve men to make it possible for a 
man to start in th undertaking business by attempting to change 
a good citizen to a bum, who might commit murder? If they 
should be compelled to sit on a jury and convict him of murder, 
their remorse would be so great they would never again sanction 
the licensing of a saloon. 

"He that stealeth my purse, stealeth trash. He that stealeth my 
good name, maketh me poor and miserable." Who is the guilty 
one if the eating of meat causes offense, I will eat no more meat 
while the world stands. This saying should be practiced by every 
person. Those who do not are the ones who help destroy the en- 
forcement of law, on which the existence of the nation depends. 
Christ said, "He that is not for me, is against Me." Thereby 
every man's example has its influence for good or evil. 

' RELIGION. 

Religion is said to be a heartfelt desire unuttered or unex- 
pressed, and is, in comparison, to the human race and to the world 
what the compass is to the ship. Every nation is largely governed 
by its religious faith. If they practice its principles and supply 
their needs from a heartfelt desire and are guided in their prac- 
tices by intelligence, they will prosper. To prosper we must be 
self-sacrificing and religious in practice and not in theory. The 
origin is purely a religion of reason because of an unseen God. 



Io8 THt: TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

Man weaves around his imagination the God he would Uke to 
worship, and as he develops in learning the arts and sciences, he 
is better qualified to reason and establishes a religious faith, and 
it is said, "According to your faith, so it will be done unto you." 
And as one person is governed by consistent religion, so may the 
nations be governed. 

Faith is largely the outgrowth of a desire to know something of 
the future and a desire to live in the future. Reason asks why 
a man liveth and why should he die? and because of an inherent 
born desire to live, he struggles and fights with an increasing 
sense of independence. But he is similar to the child who is de- 
pending on its earthly parents, when they are in danger, either 
on land or sea, the same feeling of dependence is developed ; and 
as one advaices in years, whether they belong to any church or 
not, the feeling of dependence is ever present, ready to call for 
help in time of danger ; therefore, the sympathetic cord is brought 
into action by the love we have one for the other, as we believe in 
a 'future existence. Therefore, the influence of this act creates 
a reciprocity of interest, and faith is increased and the action 
affects the physical life. So long as you act and live according to 
your faith, it acts on your spiritual nature, and because of this 
and the natural tendency of man to pin his faith to the future ex- 
istence, it is very important that those who make our laws and 
enforce them to do their duty. They should maintain every law 
enacted to govern the human race, knowing that the laws of the 
land are established by a belief in God's law and it will be impos- 
sible to maintain one law without the maintenance of both, as they 
are inseparable in their ministry to the needs of the human race, 
and as knowledge of the higher order was accepted, religious 
scruples were opposed and people worshipped accordingly 
and those who have but little faith regarding the future as to 
what a future existence may or may not be, should not enter into 
this question in the way of influencing one that death ends all, 
and that there is no immortality to the soul. As it is very evident 
that a person will be better off in this world by living and acting 
according to the principles given by Christ, whether he be a 
moralist and believe that his moral life is sufficient to land him 
safely in the place which, in his fancy, he imagines, and believing 



I 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. IO9 

a moral life will help him on his way. To such they should re- 
member the idea of morality is the outgrowth of the Christian 
religion and their knowledge and the light they have received on 
moral lines can be compared to the light of the moon, which re- 
ceives its light from the sun, and as the sun is essential to the 
growth of all animals and vegetables, so is the Christian religion 
essential to the growth in the way of producing happiness to the 
human race. While there can be many false beliefs regarding 
religion, there cannot be but one true, religion, and its principles 
must consist in a desire for the making conditions better for his 
fellowmen, and if the same does not consist in a willingness by 
deeds to make a sacrifice, the profession goes for nought. 

LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED. 

"Let not your heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also 
in me." When the pastor, Rev. H. L. Gravatt, of the First M. E. 
Church, Camden, N. J., announced this passage of Scripture as a 
text, the writer began to think and reason. We ask, why should 
there be seemingly so much unhappiness and trouble ? We know 
there cannot be a fulfilment of the Scripture if all are exempt from 
trouble, for they teach us that man's days are few and full of 
trouble. But the unnecessary troubles are the ones we desire to 
get rid of. The difficulty is in discriminating between the neces- 
sary and unnecessary troubles with those who have them. 

It appears to some that they cannot help having trouble, their 
mind and physical constitutional makeup is such that they cannot 
help having unnecessary trouble. Their imagination leads them 
to believe that they have inherited all the troubles of the ages. We 
know when their thinking powers are led in that direction, the ef- 
fects will be injurious to their nervous system and unhappiness is 
sure to be their companion ; that is inevitable. The Doctors of 
Divinity will tell you of a cure, which is in giving your heart to 
the Lord and putting your trust in Him. The medical doctor will 
feel of your pulse and charge you a few dollars to cure you of your 
nervous condition, which is largely due to the action of the mind 
upon the body, which must affect your physical being. This may 
be one of the secrets of the Christian Science and Faith Cure ad- 



no TPIE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

vocates, who believe in curing the bodily ills by an extension of 
their faith. In this one principle is illustrated, ''According to your 
faith, so shall it be done unto you." The Christian Doctor of 
Divinity claims his receipe for happiness is conversion, and your 
troubles must not be your predominant thought. Just at this point 
is where the spiritual and the physical part and man clash. The 
Scriptures say, "While in this world, ye shall have tribulation." 
And the same could be said of Christ when the physical suffering 
became too great. He said : "Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani," or ''Why 
hast Thou forsaken me?" 

The same principle is often applied to the Christian and to Job 
when his sufferings became too great, he cursed the day he was 
born. 

The divine cure for trouble does not extend beyond man's as- 
sistance or co-operation with God. He must resolve to let others 
do as they may, "But as for me and my house, we will serve the 
Lord ; and I will be saved from future torment and present sor- 
row." Because of the indiscriminate acts of others, especially 
when the acts are of your own flesh and blood, when they are cov- 
ered by a mother's love, as said, can a mother forget her suckling 
child she bears, though he wanders and goes astray, and God 
knows where? Can the wife whose husband has become dissi- 
pated or his love grown cold, and he forgets his marriage vows and 
spends his evenings in places of ill repute, cease to think of and 
suffer for him ? That husband may resort to the earthly physician 
and procure some pills or nerve tonic. But the power to cure him 
is not with the physician, but rests within the husband himself. 
He must stop his profligate way of living. The same power to 
cure is with the sinful son or daughter. They know where the 
trouble is that causes their mother's poor health. They know of 
the mental agony that is affecting her whole nervous system, and 
that kind of trouble cannot be cured by any divine prescription. 
Most mental trouble can be cured without resorting to the med- 
ical doctor or any patent medicine panacea; the same is true of 
many physical ills. It is impossible for the person to feel spirit- 
ually inclined when the mind and body are both at variance. 
^ When the feelings are all against that which is noble or Christlike, 
physical troubles often overbalance the spiritual and life becomes 



v 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. Ill 

a burden. Under such circumstances men do not feel like giving 
praise to their Creator, because they are suffering too much. This 
depends, however, upon the discipline and experience the patient 
has had. We may learn lessons from the birds that chant and 
sing, and praise their Creator as they soar above their worldly 
cares in the branches of the trees. 

While we are in this world, we will have trouble, and it is im- 
portant that there should be a Divine Doctor to help soothe us. 

Don't you trouble trouble 

Till trouble troubles you. 
Don't you look for trouble ; 

Let trouble look for you. 

Don't you borrow sorrow; 

You'll surely have your share. 
He who dreams of sorrow, 

Will find that sorrow's there. 

Don't you hurry worry 

By worrying lest it come. 
To flurry is to worry, 

'Twill miss you if you're mum. 

If care you've got to carry, 

Wait till 'tis at the door, 
For he who runs to meet it 

Takes up the load before. 

If minding will not mend it, 

Then better not to mind ; 
The best thing is to end it — 

Just leave it all behind. 

Who feareth hath forsaken 

The Heavenly Father's side ; 
What He hath undertaken 

He surely will provide. 

The very birds reprove thee 

With all their happy song : 
The very flowers teach thee 

That fretting is a wrong. 

"Cheer up," the sparrow chirpeth, 

"Thy Father feedeth me ; 
Think how much more he careth, 

O, lonely child, for thee !" 



112 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

"Fear not," the flowers whisper, 
"Since thus he hath arrayed 

The buttercup and daisy, 
How canst thou be afraid?" 

Then don't you trouble trouble, 
Till trouble troubles you ; 
I You'll only double trouble, 

And trouble others too. 



THE GREAT CURE FOR TROUBLE IS IN THE 
ENVIRONMENT. 

Then the Christ cure will follow. 

On the principle that prevention is greater than cure, 
environments have their effect both ways ; either for good 
or evil. The same is true of peasant and bishop, the Senator and 
the President. Each man has in himself the power to change his 
condition and grow up in newly chosen environments, which is 
practically shown in the Church Forum of May ist, 1906. How 
Bishop Fowler, Bishop McCabe, Dr. Buckley and J. Wesley Hill 
can become so surrounded by the political influence that they lose 
sight of their higher calling and can only pray for them to have 
the gift to see themselves as others see them. Association and en- 
vironment act on the physical nature when man is so constituted 
that the spiritual and physical are brought into harmony with each 
other, then compromising with evil is at an end and good will 
grow. 

We hardly know where the dividing line between the Catholic 
religion and Protestant is because of our political conditions. The 
doctors of divinity are endeavoring to solve this problem, and 
show us how humanity can procure the greatest amount of happi- 
ness out of this life. To reason along this line, it would seem 
natural to suppose that the happiness of a being living here on 
this earth would be increased and his condition bettered by being 
brought in touch with the blessings of the future ; hence being fit- 
ted for a prepared place and conditions. 

If not then, it is essential that there must be a class of people 
always doing things that are indiscreet, in order that they may 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. II3 

have tribulation and trouble such as will cause others to be humil- 
iated in order that they may get to heaven. The mother of a son 
who sows wild oats is sure to get to heaven through tribulation; 
and when the doctor of divinity makes a friendly call, she will tell 
him of her troubles, and the only perscription or words of comfort 
he has for her afflictions, whether they be mental or physical, is that 
they are for her good, that she may receive a richer crown in the 
future ; and she accepts the same as words of comfort, because 
she believes sin came into the world by our first parents, and man 
makes a Garden of Eden, with temptation, and that is the call for 
a doctor of divinity to live that he may help bear her burden. 

Because someone was allowed to make a Garden of Eden liken 
unto a beer garden, or a garden that might grow tobacco, there 
had to be doctors of divinity. Some believe the first downward 
step of a boy is when he lights his first cigarette, and the mother 
of the boy is sure to get to heaven because of the acts of the boy 
to make her humble. And it was necessary to have a medical doc- 
tor in order that he may attend to the physical wants of the dissi- 
pated boy, and receive a remittance for his services because the son 
committed an act to his body that so deteriorates his physical con- 
stitution that he was not able to withstand the strain of dissipation. 
The trouble began with the first cigarette. 

Then there is another professor or doctor of law who must live 
from the results of sin. There must be large court houses built, 
like the late one in Camden, costing $600,000 ; there must be doc- 
tors of law to fill the commodious structure, each one to receive 
his portion — and the greater the sin, the greater the pay. If the 
subject is able to pay the same, all is welll ; if not, the lawabiding 
citizens must pay it, which proves that the whole philosophy of 
sin is a money-making concern. The Catholic priest saw this, 
when on going to Kansas and Maine found that the jails were 
empty. We ought to learn this lesson : That opportunities for 
people to sin increase the volume of sin ; hence, the fewer they 
are, the less sin we shall have, and I don't believe the people who 
live in Kansas and Maine will be barred out of heaven because 
they did not go through troubles and tribulations here on earth. 
Then if this does not require that the human race shall be brought 
to this condition in order to receive a heavenly reward, why not 



114 '^^lE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

Stop all this tomfoolery and act on the principle of prohibition, for 
we know that we have the power to escape all trouble caused by 
such sin. 

Would it not be more consistent to raise money to educate 
bishops, doctors and lawyers than to send it to the missionaries to 
educate them, as in accordance with the Christian religion, a per- 
son is only held responsible in keeping with the knowledge he pos- 
sesses. Hence, instead of procuring large sums of money to build 
churches and colleges, would it not be wiser to educate doctors of 
divinity and get the churches filled that they may remove the en- 
vironments that now incline the people to stay away from the 
churches. Man's tendency is worldly enough without encourag- 
ing him to stay at home and read his Sunday newspaper and 
smoke his cigar, keep his wife from attending church and setting a 
bad example for his children. As I have noted, there are three 
classes of professions intended to benefit mankind: the spiritual 
doctor, the medical doctor and the lawyer doctor, each one receiv- 
ing remuneration for his services. All these doctors are made to 
feel that so long as we deal in sinful transgressions, trouble must 
continue, for it is true that no one can commit an unjust act, un- 
less someone has been injured, either in word or deed. This being 
true, what is the remedy? The divine doctor says, ''Get them con- 
verted," but how are we to reach the masses who need it most ? 

The layman's cure is to attend to his animal life first. This he 
would do by making the environments of home so pure and eleva- 
ting that the influence of fathers and mothers will not give the 
children license to do wrong, but so live that the influence of their 
deeds and words which have a much farther reaching influence 
than many suppose, will be helpful in the establishing of a new 
regime of living. First make right he in whom the power is in- 
vested, for how can you expect those to do any differently in the 
future than you have done in the past ? 

The writer has described man as being three parts animal and 
one part spiritual. This gives the animal the controlling influence 
over man. How then can the elevation of man be accomplished 
by the principle of the mind having power over matter, so that the 
person may know that he has invested in him to help his fellow 
man, who is only an animal like himself? This would enable himc 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. US' 

to have the same respect for his kind as the various animals have. 
Then it would not be possible for one animal to live off of the 
other, but all would expect to give value for what they received. 
Not when your fellow traveler wants bread, give him a stone, so 
that he might starve and you live through failure to meet obliga- 
tions, which is in principle cannibalism, and lowers man below the 
larger part of the animal creation. The remedy lies in this prin- 
ciple or a better world and hereafter. By knowing yourself, what 
manner of man or animal you are, and how you have risen to your 
present condition, and by giving credit to the principle recom- 
mended by the author, then the problem is solved as to what we 
shall do with the masses and how we shall get them converted. 
This business of sinning is like a great commercial commodity. Its 
effects are like so much poison distributed and acting on the 
human system. 

It may seem like pleasure, but it has a bitter taste. To assist those 
who have taken on themselves the management of those who have 
not the power to control themselves, let this be your first work, 
begin at once the "Study of thyself ,as a workman, know that your 
work is approved of God, according to t he principle given in 
Christ." This principle of perfection is implanted in every heart, 
in the young as well as the old ; hence the beautiful rather than 
the homely or unsightly, so that men in art and science, painting 
and music, literature and life will have admiration one for the 
other. Then let this be your motto, and come as near the mark 
of perfection as is possible. This can only be accomplished by 
studying yourself and finding out the secret cause of your own 
imperfections. When you have discovered by your own mistakes,, 
and the mistakes and influences of those who have come to know 
you, you will be in a position to advise and teach others. 

This will apply to the young ladies or the young men, or any 
one else. Just so long as there is a profit connected with the com- 
mitting of sin, sin will exist ; as for example : as long as there is. 
profit connected with the sale of intoxicating liquors, it will exist, 
and some people will make a commodity of it. There cannot 
be an act without a cause ; hence the act produces trouble. There 
are some troubles that cannot be prevented : Sickness, death, loss 
of property, loss of friends— they are the heritage of man. Sin: 



Il6 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

can be compared with the air. You cannot see it, but the effects 
you can see. You cannot see electricity, but the effects of it can 
be seen. You cannot see God, but you see His effects, which are 
all good, and all that is good is of God. 

God created man and called him good, and good is natural to 
man as it is of God. Sin is of the animal nature, and not the devil, 
and the animal overpowers the God man whenever he oversteps 
his line, and do to another person that which you would not have 
them do to you. Thus sin is of the animal, and the animal is re- 
sponsible only to the extent of the knowledge that comes from 
God, as all knowledge comes by His goodness. 

I note of late the North American, of Philadelphia, is booming 
up a party entitled the Lincoln Party. This might appear sug- 
gestive to many and be looked upon as the need of the hour, for 
many think of Lincoln as a gift by the hand of an overruling 
Providence. 

Have you thought what the outcome would be if man should 
attempt to establish a National Party by the name of Lincoln Re- 
publican? With some, it might appear as consistent to name a 
party Jeff Davis Republican Party, as we are a Republican gov- 
•ernment, and are all under one flag. 

Both armies during the Civil War believed their cause to be 
right ; hence, to many it would appear to be as consistent to estab- 
hsh a party and call it the Lincoln reHgion, like some of the pres- 
ent religions of the day, such as Buddaism, Confucinsism and 
Mohammedanism. All these religions are named after a certain 
man. and to attempt to establish a party with the name of a man 
would be a failure, as there has not been but one perfect man ; 
therefore, the need of the hour is a party whose principles are 
ingrafted in the platform of betterment for all mankind. 

Not a few of Lincoln's doing benefitted some and injured 
others. Slavery was abolished, but the displacement of that evil 
caused a much greater evil to take its place. Because of its expen- 
ditures we went into business with the Liquor Trust, and by not 
vetoing it, he brought injury to the whole nation. 

Therefore, the party that comes to stay must have the principles 
of God, as given to Peter by his Lord : "On this rock I build My 
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." To 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. II7 

have a party named after a man would be to lose sight of the prin- 
ciples and worship a man ; but in this intelligent age, we have out- 
grown idolatry ; if not, we had better quit sending money to the 
missionaries and distribute some of it at home. I have published 
in this book the necessity for a new political party, and the need 
is so great that nothing shall be suffered to remain in the way. It 
is in accord with all the higher laws of the great God. No matter 
what it may displace, there must be a new party to fill the gap and 
meet the demands of a long-felt need. Hence, I feel that it would 
not be a presumptuous act on the part of the author to suggest an 
appropriate name with a significance that is higher and mightier 
than man. I would propose the name of "Monitor," for every 
proposition or party who expects to meet with permanent success, 
must have principle and conviction such as appeals to reason and 
heroism. Republics are supposed to be governed by the represen- 
tatives who are chosen by the people, but when the principle is lost 
and you put your trust in the man, you will fail, for the Scripture 
says : "All men are liars, and every man goes his own way." And 
it has been proven in all past history that man is unable to control 
himself, at all times, unless imbued with more than ordinary man- 
liness, and when placed in political position, he is sure to fail. 

This has been proven by every Republican form of government. 
The name of a party called the "Monitor" would be acceptable to 
the human race, as a definition of "Monitor" means a governor 
which is more fully explained in Webster's dictionary. The adop- 
tion of such a name for a political party would be in accordance 
with the Tenth Commandment, or the principles as given by 
Christ. 

It would be more consistent to name the party "Dewey" party 
than "Lincoln" party, as Dewey won his victory without the loss 
of a man, and without the use of any intoxicating liquors, by the 
men behind his guns. Lincoln, by his method, when he consented 
to run the war by the revenue from liquor and tobacco, was four 
years conquering the South, by starvation, and the same is true of 
Sherman, who marched from Atlanta to the sea. He secured his 
own supplies without the use of whisky. He did more to break up 
the rebellion than Lincoln did in running the war by revenues, for 
that was the same as blood money. 



Il8 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

When McKinley undertook to conquer the Philippines, he failed 
by permitting the sale of liquor on the islands and the use of the 
same among the soldiers. He thought he could make short work 
of it, but offered a reward for the capture of Agquinaldo, but that 
did not conquer them, for it appealed to their intuition or common 
sense and reason that if we were a Christian nation, we would not 
bring poisonous drink to destroy their people ; hence, they were 
determined to fight it out, and we found we had a larger job on 
our hands than we had planned for, for every man proposed to 
die at his post rather than to be slowly poisoned to death. But 
when the women came to the assistance of Mr. McKinley they 
succeeded in having the canteen abolished, then the Filipinos sub-, 
mitted to be controlled by a Christian nation ; and it was like the 
success of the Gideon Band. 

That Dewey and Sherman were soldiers who fought and drank 
the pure water found that it was useless to attempt to conquer the 
Filipinos by the sword. The whole event may be explained by 
the story of an Irishman who became drunk and stood cursing a 
statue; when liberated, he came and looked at it quietly, and the 
policeman asked him what he thought of it now. He replied: "I 
am of the same opinion still." When our nation felt the men filled 
with the stuff that makes men drunk, and in that condition could 
not lock up Agquinaldo, nor conquer the Philippines, they will 
hold to the same opinion still. 

Whether a man gets drunk by United States rum or not, one 
thing is established, as a Scripture saying: "As ye sow, so shall 
ye reap." They were like the Irishman who came to this country 
and went into the milk business and acquired a nice sum of money, 
and on his passage home he became anxious to look at the bright 
gold, and opened the bag. A large monkey on board the ship seized 
the bag and ran up the mast with it, then threw piece at a time 
down, first one to the Irishman on deck and then one overboard. 
The Irishman stood looking upward, fearful to disturb the monkey 
lest he should throw it all over into the water. Piece by piece it 
dropped down until all was gone and the empty bag came down. 
Then said the Irishman, ''Don't it beat the devil, what comes by 
water, goes by water." 

Does this not represent our nation's condition to-day? They 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. II'9 

are worshiping the golden calf, just as the Irishman was worship- 
ping his bag of gold. Something will happen that it will come 
back to them, or to their children, as the iniquities of the parents 
come back to the third and fourth generations, whether it is a 
money sin or physical sin against the body. 

We, as a Christian nation, have no other guide but the Bible. 
Is not the principle heretofore estabHshed coming home to us as 
it is applied in governing the universe ? When applied to the gov- 
erning of man, while he acts in accordance with the Divine law, 
things will go well with him, unless he is thrown off the track by 
an evil power, or influenced to do wrong by some political corrup- 
tion or by disobedience to some law governing the race. Does not 
the same moral apply in business when a nation makes a law by 
which a hundred thousand die prematurely ? Is not the Scriptural 
condemnation and ' announcement of future retribution the same 
as when some physical law is broken? Shall we not look for the 
harvest according to our sowing ? What of Haman, who built the 
scaffold for Mordicai? Are not we building for ourselves or 
our families ? And as the hymnal reads, ''Does not God move, yet 
He (God) moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." 

The most consistent way to prevent a future repetition is by 
practicing the old Mosaic law : ''An eye for an eye and a tooth for 
a tooth." If thousands die annually by the liquor traffic, should not 
the Scriptures be verified? and when men having power to pre- 
vent it and fail to do so, die in the same way, without disrespect 
to Lincoln or McKinley. The same laws apply to their adminis- 
tration as they fail to do their duty, and were assassinated by the 
same power that built the scaffold. 

IS THE LOVE OF MONEY THE ROOT OF ALL EVILS ? 

The love of money is not the root of all evil, as there are many 
evil acts and sins committed by those who love money which are 
not for the love of money. From the old saying, one would sup- 
pose that money is the root of all evil, but there are many evils 
that money does not enter into by following the inclination of the 
animal part of man, and if not so, we would be at sea and not 
know how to reconcile the many evils during the present and the 
Bible times. These might be cited as instances : When Cain 



I20 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

killed Abel; when Noah got drunk from the wine or juice of the 
grape ; when David put Uriah at the front of the battle, that he 
might be killed and secure for himself his wife. 

The acts of these three persons are all different, yet their acts 
were committed without the love of money. We know they are 
common attributes of man and as natural to him as for the duck 
to take to the water. Are they evils or sins ? As all these named 
persons committed sin without the desire for money and they all 
had a love for money, and these acts are a sin, then the payment 
of these must be made by a sacrifice of money. Therefore, there 
must be some one on earth to receive that offering, but as that 
offering can only secure forgiveness for the evil done on earth 
through the love of money, and that money is paid to have power 
to commune with God and make atonement for his sins here, and 
if that person does not possess the power to forgive sin, hence 
there must necessarily be a place made for him like unto purga- 
tory before they can satisfy God's dealing with man. 
before they pass satisfactorily God's way of dealing with man. 

The condition of that man is similar to a man who had a dream 
and knowing that he had done many things of a questionable 
nature, and believing that he might ride to heaven on horseback, 
when he arrived there he knocked for St. Peter to let him in. The 
reply was, *'Who is there?" When informed of the same St. 
Peter replied, 'Tlease dismount, hitch your horse outside." So if 
these acts of an animal nature be a sin, then we must dismount 
and stay outside in purgatory until we are fitted to walk in, as 
money does not suffice with God in dealing with man. There- 
fore man tries to make a sacrifice with money or money value, as 
God said we must make a sacrifice, so man provides the price of 
a licensed saloon and instead of making a sacrifice of his own son, 
as Abraham did, according to God's way, pays so much for the 
privilege of sacrificing some other man's son. This applies where 
money is the root of all evil. 

Did Cain commit a sin when he slew his brother? He pos- 
sessed a jealous disposition and his jealousy got beyond his con- 
trol and he slew Abel. If any excuse is made for Cain, he should 
have the benefit, as he had but little opportunity for education 
and possessed animal propensities. 



the; twentieth century age of reason. 121 

Was it a sin when Noah got drunk ? The grapes grew naturally 
and he drank of the juice of the grapes and in the process of 
nature they began to decay and separate, thus becoming intoxica- 
ted by nature's way of doing. But in this intelligent day it might 
be called a sin for man to interfere with nature's way of separa- 
ting the decayed part from the pure, by the use of the still. 

Man has obtained knowledge and it might be regarded as a sin 
to do anything to injure his fellow man. We might consider 
David who possessed all the attributes natural to man. It might 
not have been deemed a sin in those days to put Uriah at the head 
of the battle, as the battle was fought for righteousness and good 
government. There was no harm in David attempting to secure 
Uriah's wife. He was king and exercised a right that good might 
come out of it, as the command was to multiply and replenish the 
earth and it does not appear that they looked on sin in those days 
as we do now. Otherwise, David would have done as they do in 
these days : he would have bought the reporter or the editor so it 
never would have been published. Was David's way of looking 
at sin immoral? 

As the evil act grew out of the animal propensities, it was not 
the greed of money. 

In this epoch of higher education on moral lines the rights of 
others should be recognized, but the moral sense of justice seems" 
to be blunted on one side and questioned on the other. Conscience 
should guide every man, but conscience cannot be relied upon as 
a true moral guide. Man's conscience may be likened unto an 
alarm clock : you may become so accustomed to it that you do not 
hear it or heed it when it is supposed to awaken you to action. 
Neither can there be a standard for sin. 

The same might be said of Noah when he became drunk. Noah 
apparently did not have the same knowledge that people now have 
for discerning the difference in evils. If there is no money in the 
transaction and it be a friendly, social act, then harm would be 
connected with the giver, as I have heard of persons sending 
turkeys to the President of the United States and others sending 
demijohns of whisky, but they did not label the whisky poison, 
doubtless thinking the President knew it to be poison. We have 
no proof that the President drank the whisky, like when Paul 



122 the: twe;ntieth ckntury x\ge of reason. 

said to Timothy, "Take a little for thy stomach's sake," but we do 
not know whether Timothy complied. The whisky not being 
labeled poison, some of the younger members of the President's 
family may have taken it. This shows that evil can be done with- 
out money consideration, and that we may unintentionally do our 
fellowmen an injury. Had the President drank the whisky and 
his head become muddled, the whole nation might have been in- 
jured by the eftects of the whisky. 

The love of money is not the root of all evil, it is the root of the 
evil committed for money. No doubt the President likes money 
as much as others do. This proves that conscience cannot provide 
a standard of morality or the same act to be as sinful to all alike. 

We are constrained to compare the human race to a governor 
whose son was guilty of murder. The governor had power to 
stay the execution and to pardon and exercise his prerogative, 
which he did, but he resigned his office. If Christ has power to 
forgive sins, has He not forgiven for all time? 

Because of the love of money many have parted from the faith 
and pierced themselves with sorrow — a sorrow like hell on earth 
— and created for themselves the need of a purgatory, as they are 
unfit for any other place. 

Merchants lose millions of dollars annually by the credit sys- 
tem. A merchant is approached by a person seeking credit. The 
latter may be a user of tobacco or may use liquor. The merchant 
may have doubts, but because of the love of money and the desire 
to secure trade, he takes chances. If he had been governed by his 
first impression, he would not have lost. By your acts you injure 
not only yourself but others. This man seeking credit had an ap- 
petite for narcotics and by giving him credit the merchant en- 
couraged him to indulge his appetite more freely, which lowered 
him in the scale of self-respect and honesty. Whether the mer- 
chant loses or not he gambled on the man. 

To protect himself, when a person he is suspicious of, asks 
credit, a merchant should have a printed form of questions, viz. : 
Do you use tobacco? Do you use beer or other intoxicating 
liquors ? Do you gamble ? Have you paid the last merchant with 
whom you dealt? If so, please give reference. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 1 23 

This system of protection against the love of money will result 
in great good to grocerymen and real estate men. 

The writer once attempted to collect a debt for rent from a vic- 
tim of the liquor habit. Because of my desire to help and not 
distress him, I permitted him to remain in the house during the 
winter, after he had promised me that when he went to work in 
the spring he would make weekly payments. I tried to secure 
work for him during the winter. I also told him there was a bet- 
ter way of living, gave him several temperance tracts and per- 
suaded him to go to church and attend temperance lectures. 

When spring came he had plenty of work and I again tried to 
collect the money due, but received only promises and finally he 
refused to pay anything. When I called upon him he became 
abusive, using the most violent language and told me that if it 
were not for my age he would wipe up the floor with me. While 
the floor may have needed mopping, I did not relish the prospect 
of being turned into a floor mop, and departed believing discretion 
was the better part of valor, and feeling thankful that my age had 
protected me. However, it did afford me pleasure in going to 
the District Court and getting an order for the ejection of the 
tenant, who also was required to pay for having the house cleaned. 

This incident caused the writer to realize that he was getting 
old and had better spend his time trying to prevent a person 
catching the saloon disease, instead of trying to cure persons al- 
ready afflicted with the malady. 

The credit system is often a curse to the person who does not 
own his home. Knowing the tendency of man, it is not good for 
him to be tempted. With the credit system the merchant is viola- 
ting the Scriptural saying, 'Xead us not into temptation." Mer- 
chants are responsible for the dishonesty of millions. The credit 
system educates people to live beyond their incomes and encour- 
ages them to study how they can do some one out of money in- 
stead of promptly paying their debts. 

There is an article in a book entitled "The Monitor," in which 
is shown that in this age of reason by the abolishment of the use 
of tobacco and liquor, how every family in the United States 
could, in a few years, own a home, thereby avoiding money panic 
and suppression in business. These two evils constantly keep 



124 '^'^'^^ T\VE:NTrE:TH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

the people poor. If they were abolished there would be 
fewer labor troubles. Many laborers would soon own homes and 
would become independent. They could make a scarcity of labor- 
ers and could better dictate to their employers. Because many 
persons are constantly poor, the capitalists take advantage of the 
laboring man. The money the laborer gives to the labor unions 
adds to his poverty. By making a change in this respect a new 
era would begin with many. Let it be called evolution or what 
you please. 

Bettering his physical condition will give a man self-respect. 
It will create a desire to provide for the future by providing a 
home. There is nothing that will cause the masses to rise higher 
and become good citizens quicker than the possession of a home. 
This condition will have effect on the wife and the children. The 
mothers have much to do with moulding character, and if every 
mother had a home of her own, the whole world would blossom 
as a rose. The desire to possess a home is implanted in every 
human breast, and if this hope were realized, the problem what 
to do with the masses would soon be solved. Under the present 
condition there is an arrogant feeling against the wealthy, which 
tends to breed socialism and anarchism. 

Many may look upon this proposed reformation as impossible. 
I do not, as I have the sentiment in my favor and there is a cloud 
rising by the process of the mothers and the importuning law- 
makers to make laws to prohibit cigarette smoking, and as I have 
said that necessity is the greatest of all conditions to cause man 
to act, and this condition is now here, as the proof is on us as a 
nation, knowing that a habit can control one man, the same can 
control the nation. Then let every merchant, every manufacturer 
make the demand for a normal man. Every railroad company 
and every express company, every unmarried lady form an anti- 
tobacco society, then let every Legislature pass laws to prevent 
any person under the age of twenty-one using tobacco, under a 
penalty of heavy fine. Then let Congress make a law making it 
illegal to grow tobacco, or import it ; out of all these means to 
suppress its use. The unmarried ladies of the land will have the 
most effect, because of a natural law, the strongest affiliations of 
sex one to the other and all that is needed is to put this subtle 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 25 

force into practice. Some may feel that this would be sacrificing 
a husband, but if they reason correctly a gentleman friend who 
has not enough respect for women to abstain from the filthy habit 
before marriage, he will not afterwards. You are not making 
any more of a demand of him than he would of you, if you should 
desire to use the filthy weed. Custom and social desire do not 
have any excuse for the female who uses it. Any young lady 
who hesitates to take this stand against the filthy habit for fear of 
losing a husband must have more love for a friend than she has 
love for herself, as it is a common law that self preservation is 
the first law of nature. Should she view him in the proper light, 
he could not show her more disrespect than he does by puffing his 
smoke into her face. No gentleman will defile a lady's lips by at- 
tempting to manifest his fondness for her by kissing her with a 
tobacco-soiled mouth. Now I feel confident there is not one lady 
in a hundred that would prefer her gentleman friend to use the 
poisonous weed, but because of presumption on his part he will 
arbitrarily force the offense on her, and because of her inoffensive 
nature, she submits at the beginning of a courtship, and sacrifices 
a right that her friend's lips should be as pure as hers, and at 
the very beginning she sacrifices a principle which should not be 
tolerated, and because of it the effects are damaging to both. 
One being presumption and the other timidiness, and if after mar- 
riage the wife should attempt to persuade him from its use, he 
would naturally say ''You took me when I used tobacco, why 
should you object to my using it now?" 

Do not marry a man that has a fixed narcotic habit with the 
hope of reforming him. Before you make that decision think of 
the many divorce cases. If you feel you would sacrifice a husband 
by your persistency, remember it might be for your good, and 
if not yours, it might be for the good of others in coming years. 
Knowing that all sacrifices in the line of reform are only in ac- 
cordance with the Christian religion, as we have the many occur- 
rences of sacrifices in the Bible times and in this day, and genera- 
tion, wherein the happiness of this world depends largely on the 
condition of the home and woman's happiness largely depends on 
what the husband makes it. 

There has been a great neglect along this line of effort. Want 



126 the; twentieth century age of reason. 

of happiness in homes is largely due to the want of thoughtful- 
ness. If the women of this land expect to rise to a higher and 
better condition, it is important that they co-operate with men who 
have a higher regard for mankind than those who make laws 
and are purely working for the commercial interest of the nation ; 
for there is great need of advancement in that line by using all 
the elements of nature to further the commercial side of life, so 
that this twentieth century be more devoted to the elevation of 
mankind and by so doing we may better fulfil the purpose that was 
intended we should do by our Creator, and by each doing his part 
we may help change this old world from a state of purgatory to 
paradise. 

EMOLUMENT. 

The desire of the human race above all others is to perpetuate 
themselves. This attribute is so woven in the wark and wove of 
man that from childhood to old age the desire that his posterity 
should be perpetuated among the millions this seems to be up- 
permost. In the Bible times they evidently followed the injunc- 
tion of the Scripture to multiply and replenish the earth. This 
inbred desire to be perpetuated does not end with death, for while 
man lives he seeks to place a monument to those he loves, and 
some have been known to place a tombstone to som.e animals that 
they would not be forgotten. This same principle is shown by 
the placing a marble slab to the honor and memory of the de- 
parted, believing that the same will be placed at their head. But 
all during his life, he seeks to emulate himself by building a mon- 
ument to himself and family that they may be an honor to his 
name. Some seek various methods according to their fancy. The 
young man that fancies to be dudeish, and thinks by adding to 
himself a cigar and other adornments and using some swear 
words he is building himself in the estimation of others to be 
manlike and to be admired. Instead he should be called a seno- 
toph. The young lady who fancies that by narrowing in her 
waist that her shape might be admired, she too is trying to es- 
tablish her name as handsome and to be admired. She does this, 
though it costs her health, and by it she becomes weak all her life. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 27 

This is found among the Chinese who bind their feet in order to 
be admired by the male sex. While tight lacing might be morq 
injurious to the health of the person and the coming generation 
than the binding of the feet. Some seek to elevate themselves 
by securing certain titles to their name or by giving large sums 
of money where their name will be known by the erection of some 
large building. We know this way of doing is characteristic of 
human nature who are letting the left hand know what the right 
hand doeth. This was recently shown by the late rescue of Capt. 
Casto, of the Cherokee, who was the instrument of saving sixty 
souls in the face of death on a vessel on a shoal of Brigantine 
Beach. There were many ready to contribute to the needs so that 
their names might be made prominent, but how few are willing 
to contribute to the needs of a home by assisting in an educational 
line when such knowledge would be a safety or life line thrown 
out to the millions of young men who are struggling against the 
waves of social life, the life of the gambler, the life of lust and 
passion, the habit of cigarette and liquor. They would only be 
too glad to receive assistance to free themselves and get ready to 
assist others by throwing out the life line by contributing $5000 
to the son of Captain Casto for educational purposes. The same 
amount spent on five young men would doubtless be better spent 
than on one, as there are many bright diamonds in obscurity ; all 
they need is polishing, and to spend the amount on one to be 
educated is only making opportunity for graft. But, there are 
so many more ready to respond to such charitable gifts, if given 
in some other way for educational purposes, might save 6000 
souls from premature graves, by the knowledge imparted, to 
save from a worse condition, as often living trouble is worse than 
dead, when the enemy will readily distribute ten tons of ob- 
scene literature to help sink them deeper in sin and vice. Daniel 
Webster said, "If I write my thoughts on marble they will in 
time crumble into dust, but if I write it on the minds of men it 
will last as long as Eternity." The same applies to the distribu- 
ting of such literature that will improve the mind to greater and 
nobler deeds, as might be compared to many of the noted states- 
men and presidents by the reading of some book, as of Lincoln, 
by the reading of a book, ''By the Pine-knot Fire," got his im- 



128 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

pression that slavery was a great moral evil ; and the same can 
be applied to some of the noted desperadoes like the Jesse James 
Brothers who, by reading books, caused them to be the greatest 
outlaws of the age. 

WHAT DO I OWE THE OTHER MAN ? 

The first duty that we owe to God concerns our own personal 
relation to Him. In no thought of our hearts, in no deed of our 
hands, can we escape this personal responsibility. But a second 
series of duties that we owe to God concerns our brother ; and 
these duties are of equal importance with the first. No man can 
live for himself, even should he wish to try to do so. For his 
own good or evil deeds he will be accountable to God ; and for 
the effort of his good or evil conduct upon his brother's conduct 
he will also be responsible. 

No man is responsible for the conduct of everybody ; but every 
man is responsible for the effect which his conduct will have on 
the conduct of somebody. We never can tell how far our in- 
fluence extends. Carlysle says that not even the savage red In- 
dian in the heart of the great Northwest wilderness can abuse 
his squaw but that all womanhood must suffer for it. Just to 
the extent which we influence other people, to that same extent 
are we responsible to God for their acts. 

Again, we are responsible for the conduct of our brother, if 
we have the means at hand to help him to be good or to rescue 
him from evil and do not use them. If God has given us a 
knowledge of the truth, we are bound to communicate it to others. 

It is one of the unwritten laws of the medical profession that if 
a physician discovers a new remedy he is bound to publish it to 
the world, so that all physicians may be able thereby to relieve 
suffering humanity. Think of the suffering which the use of the 
X-ray has prevented since the publication by Prof. Roentgen of 
his discovery. Now, if the scientist who has discovered some 
means of curing bodily ills is counted blameworthy if he selfishly 
profits by his discovery c^r refuses to communicate it to others, 
how much more worthy of blame are we, if we have received the 
saving truth of God and fail to communicate it to our neighbors. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 29 

It is generally recognized that the man who assumes the honors 
which belong to the officer's position, assumes at the same time 
the responsibihty of caring for the hfe and welfare of those who 
are under his command. In the same way, the engineer of the 
express train, or the captain of the ocean steamer, assumes the 
responsibihty for the safety of the passengers who have intrusted 
their lives to his keeping. If danger arises, the post of honer 
i3 the post of danger. Yet what is the ideal of honor which 
holds the officer to his post of danger or carries down the engi- 
neer to death, that he may save the passengers from the wreck, 
but the practical outworking of the spirit of the Gospel of Christ ? 

The spirit which asks, "Am I my brother's keeper?" is the 
very opposite to that of Christ. The Old Testament taught us 
to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, but the ideal of Christ 
lays a higher obligation upon us : We must love our neighbor 
better than we do ourselves. "This is my commandment. That 
you love one another, as I have loved you." "Greater love hath 
no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." — 
Forzvard, 



CREATION 

God is perfect. Ever since man came to the point of responsi- 
bility and reason he has been trying to fathom how he came to 
be created. We have the history of the Bible, but with many this 
does not seem to satisfy. With many others God's power is lim- 
ited, and he was shut up to the creation of Adam and Eve. But 
God could have created a hundred or a thousand men and women 
at the same time. When the earth had reached the proper condi- 
tion for .created beings, we may, without going into much phil- 
osophy regarding how, accept the simple statement — "In the be- 
ginning God peopled the earth," for reasons clearly shown us., 
that God had power to create in any way he thought proper. As 
vegetation naturally reaches perfection by growth, would it not 
seem more natural for man to grow in the same way, than that he 
was made full grown and capable of battling with the various 
vicissitudes of life and taking care of himself at first? As man 
is only different from the vegetable kingdom in his power of 
thought, this one gift establishes the relation between Creator 
and man, so that God and man are one in spirit, as it is written: 
"God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man be- 
came a living soul." But no man has seen or can see God and 
live. Therefore, we must, like the kernel or germ, die to be re- 
produced. We must die to see God, but our spirits and minds 
will be capable of knowing more of God when the mind is freed 
from the body ; and as it is impossible to produce annihilation of 
the material things, would it not be less reasonable to suppose that 
death could not destroy the spiritual and would take on a condi- 
tion more like God and not have to wait until the resurrection 
day, but continue to exist by the same power that caused it to ex- 
ist? And as the impressions are made on the brain here and 
stored up, and when freed from the surroundings of the animal 
influences, by death, all the good impressions will become in harm- 

130 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 13I 

ony with other impressions. That our spirits are storing up 
thoughts of a God-hke nature, and will be used to add our hap- 
piness. 

As I have said a thing created is never destroyed, but it re- 
mains in some form as the embrazures are made on the gramo- 
phone record are preserved. The same can be preserved after 
death, as impressions have been caused by the electricity which 
is in our bodies and the same were put in motion because of the 
physical needs of the body, known to others through our five 
senses. And as electricity is used here to the aid of a dynamo, so 
we may store up good thoughts for our future happiness, and pos- 
sibly there may be much discovered on this line that will add to 
our present happiness, by doing away with the pen and paper, 
•now used to preserve them. Who can tell how soon an instru- 
ment may appear that will transfer thought to paper without pen, 
but carried to paper by a current of electricity produced in our 
bodies? At this present age our thoughts are a continuation of 
the current carried from the electrical battery to the ends 01 the 
fingers. The telegraph and telephone are only a continuation of 
the current of electricity. Then, as all thought is created by the 
absorption of food, air and water, and the electricity which is 
drawn in by each inhalation, is it not of great importance that we 
should not mix poisonous substances in with the brain battery, like 
tobacco, or the poison that is absorbed by its use, which is sure 
to produce an abnormal condition in the system, and its effects 
are shown in two ways — physically and mentally. 

As a person who uses tobacco is compelled to eat larger 
quantities of food to keep up wasted energies, because the system 
is required to overcome the effects of unnatural intruders, which 
are continually robbing him of his energy and to resuscitate the 
same, he resorts to temporary stimulant. This affects the heart 
and the action starts the blood to flow more rapidly, that our 
nerves may be stimulated thereby. 

The person who may be troubled to write or think in adding 
up a column of figures who is addicted to the use of stimulants, 
has to have recourse to these poisonous stimulants that his body 
is subjected to, and the person that attempts to secure happiness 
or add anything to his system by the use of the same is most in- 



132 the: tweintieth ceintury ace: of reason. 

consistent. It would be as consistent to attempt to lift himself 
by his boot-straps or to secure perpetual motion from matter 
which are all subject to the same law of gravitation. 

God alone gives perpetual motion to the earth and the waves 
of the sea by the motion of the wind. He also can produce the 
same things from year to year. 

By the growth of vegetation man plants the grains of corn, for 
his own use, but God always makes the rows of corn grow, an 
even number of rows to the ear, as God counts and man counts, 
proves that man is of God, as the son is related to his father. 

The same principle is carried out in all other parts of the veg- 
etable kingdom, as there has to be a Creator to produce some- 
thing, and the same principle of reproducing its own kind is car- 
ried out in the vegetable kingdom, as it is with man. The vegeta- 
ble must come under the same law to produce its true specie, and 
unless care is taken in the vegetable kingdom, there will be amal- 
gamation of the vegetable product. 

From the polan of the male blossom, as mother earth in her 
way of reproducing the vegetable kingdom is continued, so in the 
human race. It is important that there should be a greater care 
in the human race, to prevent amalgamation between the human 
race than in the vegetable. 

The flavor and good quality are usually spoiled by allowing the 
polan from one vegetable near its own specie to come in contact 
with the other, as has been proven. If you desire to keep the 
flavor of sweet corn, it must be kept away from other species of 
corn ; and as the vegetable and choice berries and fruit are im- 
proved or retarded by the amalgamation, so is the moral principle 
destroyed by concentration in man. 

IS ELECTRICITY LIFE? 

It has been but little over half a century since the great discov- 
ery was made of the power and utility of steam and electricity, 
their applied uses, mechanically and otherwise. This discovery 
seemingly did not occur within the past fifty years, but their dis- 
covery took place in this period, and it is only in compliance with 
God's order of perfection, and their supposed recent discovery is 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. I33 

only the result of adding to or the leading up to perfection. There 
had to be a former condition of man's brain, that led Watts to 
even think that he might utilize it, when he first saw the tea kettle 
lid lifted up because of confinement of the steam, and then harness 
the same. 

It is said that Benjamin Franklin's condition of mind caused 
him to see the great power in a thunder bolt when sent by a flash 
of lightning. 

These two great factors have always existed but the application 
of their subtle force lingered for the development of man's brain. 
That had to be accomplished before they could take their place in 
the mechanical world. Then their perfection never would have 
been, had it not been for successors, and the perfection would not 
have been realized had it not been for Watt's discovery. Electric- 
ity would be of little value if it were not for the appliance of steam 
to generate electricity or attract it from the surrounding outdoor 
atmosphere. 

W^e are advancing step by step, and as long as there are those 
who are willing to attempt to reach perfection, things will develop 
to make people happy. The discovery of these two agencies surely 
has given us great factors in the way of attributing to man's hap- 
piness, but with all these blessings, it is very evident that there is 
as great an unrest and dissatisfaction with the people as there was 
before, the utilization of steam and electricity for our comfort. 
It is apparent that all these advancements are in accordance with 
God's laws. While God is attempting to make man happy through 
his process of development, there is a class of people who destroy 
all, because of the animal greed, which means I must live though 
others starve. The comparison of these two classes does not orig- 
inate in a decree or order, but because of the environments that 
first surrounded them. 

First, environments produce different thoughts, and the 
thoughts produce a physical change to the system of the animal- 
like. Good thoughts are of God, and bad thoughts are of the ani- 
mal, and have been from the beginning of the first formation of 
the human race. 

This shows the importance of our understanding the principle 
that like begets like, from the first origin or creation ; therefore,. 



134 THE twe:ntie:th century age of reason. 

we should advance more rapidly toward happiness if the father 
and mother would abstain from eating certain kinds of animal 
flesh. The influence upon the children would be very beneficial 
along the line of making them much more gentle and mild. 

Man's brain may be compared, in the mechanical world, to a re- 
ceptacle wherein electricity is generated for telegraphic purposes. 
Our memory in storing up thoughts is like unto a phonograph. 
Our whole body is essential in generating electricity, the same as 
the dynamo is essential in generating electricity for commercial 
uses. It is important that the sources from which the dynamo 
receives its power and the fuel in the boiled be of the best quality. 
It is equally important that fathers and mothers should use the 
best of food in order that their off-spring may be good and 
healthy. 

The Scriptures tell us that as a man thinketh, so is he. That 
being true, man cannot rise above his thoughts ; therefore, the most 
important of all our studying is the study of the component parts 
of man's brain where all thought force is generated. Good thoughts 
have much to do wdth making our physical condition, thereby pro- 
moting health, which has much to do with the happiness of the 
human race. Therefore, if each one would strive to study him- 
self, so that he might produce better thoughts, he would not only 
strengthen his own physical condition but would assist his fellow- 
men to do likewise. 

Anyone wishing to know more about the brain and its composi- 
tion, should read the following extracts from Dr. Gleason's 
works : 

Any further information desired on the anatomy of the human 
body can be procured by reading a copy of Dr. Gleason's "Every- 
body's Own Physician," which is for sale by the author of this 
book. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 



135 



Fig. 106. 



LECTURE XVII. 

THE BEAIN AND NERVES. 

The brain aj^ spinal cord is the common centre of the human body, 
towards which all of our impressions flow. It is the seat of all our sen- 
sations or feelings, and the source 
of all our power or strength. It 
is also the material instrument 
through which our minds and mo- 
ral natures manifest themselves in 
this life, and, as such, its study 
must always be invested with pe- 
culiar interest, and the greatest 
importance. 

When the bones of the human 
skull are opened for the purpose 
of examining the human brain, we 
shall not at first come in contact 
with this mysterious and wonder- 
ful organ, but with the membranes 
which surround it for protection. 
These membranes are three in 
jiumber. The outside one, No. 3, 
being exceedingly tough and hard, 
is called the dura mater ^ or hard 
mother. The middle one, resem- 
bling a spider's web, has been call- 
ed the arachnoid membrane. The internal UiCmbrane which immediately 
covers the brain, from its extreme softness and delicacy, is called the pia 
mater, or soft mother. 

When the bones of the skull and these three membranes are removed, 
we shall be enabled to raise up and remove this mysterious and wonderful 
organ from the cavity of the skull, for examination. At birth the brain 
of the human being is equal to about one-sixth part of the weight of the 
whole body, and weighs about sixteen ounces. It gradually grows and in- 
creases in size up to the average age of thirty-two, when it attains its maxi- 
mum of size and weight. At this period of life the brain of the male 
weighs about fifty-two ounces, and in the female about forty-eight ounces, 
60 it will be perceived the brain of the male weighs about four ounces 




Brain saen in the Cavity of the Skull. No.l, 
the Scalp ; No. 2, Bones of the Skull ; No. 3, 
Membranes covering the Brain; No. 4, the 
Brain. 



136 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 



more than that of the female, but when we come to dissect and examine the 



mmute anatomy 
of the brain of 
the female, we 
shall find that it 
is much finer in 
its texture than 
that of the male, 
so that it makes 
up in superiority 
of quality that 
it wants in quan- 
tity. In this re- 
spect it is not un- 
like a ten cent 
piece of silver in 
comparison with 
ten copper cents, 



Fig. 107. 




External View of the Brain removed from tlie Cavity of the Skull. 
P, the Cerebrum ; C, the Cerebellum ; D, the commencement of the 
Spinal Cord • F, T, 0. the anterior, middle, and posterior Lobes of the 
Cerebrum. 



though there is great a difference in size and weight, yet every one knows 
they are of equal value. 

There seems to be a very intimate relation between the size and quality 
of the human brain, and the degree of intellectual and moral power mani- 
fested during life. The brain of Newton weighed sixty-four ounces ; that 
of Cuvier, the French naturalist, sixty ounces ; that of Baron Depuytren, 
the French surgeon, fifty-eight ounces ; Napoleon and Daniel Webster fifty- 
seven ounces. When well developed, the brain should weigh one-thirty- 
Bixth part of the weight of the whole body. 

The brain of an infant weighing at birth sixteen ounces, is not only 
smaller than that of the adult, but it is so soft and delicate that it cannot 
be examined until it has been hardened by the action of alcohol. 

The outside surface of the human brain exhibits numerous prominent 
irregular-shaped ridges called the convolutions of the brain. The deep 
furrows or grooves between these convolutions are called the sulci of the 
brain. The object of these numerous convolutions and sulci seems to be 
to greatly increase the surface of the brain, to which the blood can be 
distributed for its nutrition. 

There seems to be a most intimate relation between the size of these 
convolutions and the degree of intellectual and moral power manifested 
during life. In the child, at birth, the surface of the brain is almost as 
smooth as a sheet of letter paper, enabling it to receive comparatively 
little blood, and to manifest but little intellectual and moral power. Un- 
der the influence of intellectual and moral training, the brain becomes 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 1 37 

firmer in texture, and the convolutions and sulci upon its surface become 
deeper and more prominent. The brain of an idiot, like that of an infant, 
remains perfectly smooth all through life. 

Again, in epilepsy, memory, reason, reflection, and all of the faculties 
of the mind and the moral feelings grow weaker, and finally the unhappy 
victim sinks backwards to childish imbecility or total idocy, and the brain 
of an epileptic becomes as smooth as that of an infant or an idiot. 
Anatomy of the Brain. 
The human brain is divided into two portions — the cerebrum, or intel- 
lectual brain, and the cerebellum, or animal brain. The cerebrum is 
about eight times as large as the cerebellum, and fills the upper and ante- 
rior portion of the skull. It is divided into a right and left hemisphere 
of the same size and proportions, manifesting the same functions. The 
great importance of this double organization will be fully appreciated when 
we come to study the functions assigned to this wonderful organ. 

The organs of our senses are all double organs. Thus we have two 
eyes to see with, two ears to hear with, two sides of the nose to smell 
with, and two sides of the tongue to taste with. When one eye is dis- 
eased or one ear destroyed, we can still see or hear, as long as one of these 
organs remains sound and healthy. When all of one side of the brain 
becomes diseased or injured, it may be followed by palsy and disease of 
■j^g^ -^Qg one side of the body, and not impair 

the operations of the mind or moral 
nature, as long as the other side of 
the brain remains healthy. 

Fig. 108 correctly represents the 
nature of an injury received by a 
quarryman at work on the A^ermont 
Central R. E,., reported by Dr. Bige- 
low, of Boston. By accident a blast 
was prematurely discharged while 
the workman stood over it, and the 
iron tamping rod, 1^ inches in cir- 
cumference, and 3 J feet long, was 
driven entirely through the side of 
his head, as represented, carrying 
away a large portion of one hemis- 
phere of his brain ; and yet, strange 
to say, the workman entirely recovered, and still lives, without any mate- 
rial injury of his int^llectuil faculties or moral perceptions. 

In view of the lofty functions which the Creator has thought proper to 
assign to this mysterious and wonderful organ, it was fit that he should 

10 




138 



the; twe;ntie:th century age o^ reason. 



Fig. 109. 




Brain and Nerve-Cells, foriii 
ing the grey Outside part of the 
Brain, Nos. 1 and 2 exhibiting 
the Origin of the Nerves. 



constitute tte brain a double organization, for its more perfect preserva« 
tion, from the result of disease or injury. 

"When we remove the upper third of the cer- 
ebrum, as seen in Fig. 107, we shall observe 
the two kinds of matter which enter into its 
formation. The outside portion is seen to be ^ 
composed of grey matter called the cortical (^ 
portion of the brain, because it resembles the 
rind or cortical portion of fruit. When this 
part of the brain is carefully examined by 
means of the microscope, it is found to be 
composed of great multitudes of little grey 
vesicles, and on that account is often termed 
the grey or vesicular portion of the brain, as 
seen in Fig. 109. 

The central part of the cerebrum is called 
the medullary matter, from its resemblance in 
color and structure to the spinal cord. It is 
found to be composed of numerous minute par- 
allel pipes or tubes, not more than one-five-thousandth part of an inch 
in diameter, and filled with a highly phosphorized, oily substance. 

When we make a still deeper -p^^ -^^o 

dissection, and remove the middle 
third of the brain, as seen in fig. 
110, we shall bring into view the 
first two chambers of the brain, 
called the lateral ventricles. These 
two chambers are irregular in 
shape, and are divided into what | 
are called the anterior, middle, and 
posterior cornua, or horns, and 
they contain in front two bodies 
called the corpora striata, behind 
which are seen two other bodies, 
called the optic thalmia, which 
give off" two large nerves, which 
are distributed to the eyes, to man- 
ifest the sense of sight. The third 
or middle chamber of the brain, is 
located between the hemispheres, 
and can only be brought into view 
by their separation, as seen in fig. 




Brain divided through the middle, exhibiting 
No.l, the Edge of the Scalp; No. 2, theSku!!; 
No. 3, the Cortical or grey matter ; No. 4, Medul- 
lary or white matter ; No. 5, Lateral \entricle8. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. I 39 

111. The tliii-d ventricle is irregular in shape, and contains a pink colored 
body about the size of a small pea, called the pineal gland, which, when 
opened, is found to contain a small crjstaline body, about as large as a 
pin's head or millet seed. "When this little gem was first discovered by 
the ancient anatomists, they were filled with admiration and astonishment, 
and fancied that at last they had solved the mystery, and discovered the 
very seat of the human soul ! What other use could be assigned to this 
little gem, located, as if for security, in the very centre of the human brain ? 
Doubtless it was not made in vain. But alas ! no man has yet been able 
to penetrate the mystery of its origin, or understand its uses I 

Between the two hemispheres of the brain, we observe a thin transpa- 
rent partition, called the septum lucidem, and between its folds the fifth, 
or the smallest of all the five chambers of the brain. 

The Cerebellum. 

The cerebellum is about one-eighth the size of the cerebrum, and is 
located beneath it, filling the lower and back part of the cavity of the 
skull. It is also composed of white and grey matter, arranged so as to 
form a beautiful arborescent appearance, called the arbor vitie, or tree of 
life- The nerves given ofi" by the cerebellum wind around in front of the 
bulb of the spinal cord, forming what is called the pons Varolii, or the 
bridge of Yarolius, from iti fancied resemblance to the arch of a bridge. 

The cerebellum is believed to be the co-ordinator, or regulator of mus- 
cular motions, and is found to be very large in those animals that execute 
the greatest number of complex motions^ and in skilled laborers and edu- 
cated mechanics. Other functions have been assigned to this organ by the 
phrenologists. 

Composition op the Brain. 

The human brain is composed principally of an oily substance called 
brain fat, combined with phosphorus, forming a creamy substance, filling 
the cavities of the nerve cells, and tubules of the white matter. 

The amount of phosphorus contained in the brain of the human being 
depends upon the age and intellectual capacity, as shown by the following 
table from L'Heretier : 



ifant. 


Youth. 


Adult. 


Old Age. 


Idiot 


8 


16.5 


IS 


10 


8.5 



It is estimated that the aduk human brain contains about one ounce of 
phosphorus ; and since this important substance enters so largely into ita 
composition, we shall stop to inquire into its uses. 

Phosphorus was discovered many years ago, by an old Dutch alchemist, 
while intently poring over the dust and ashes of the human body, to see 



I40 the: twentieth century age; of re:ason. 

if lie eould not discover what all the old philosophers were intent upon, 
the philosopher's stone, or some power which would transmute lead into 
gold, and when he by accident discovered this luminous substance, which, 
while he gazed upon it, took fire spontaneously, burning with the brightest 
light, and producing the most intense heat, he named it phosphorus, or 
the " bearer of light." Now, it is not a little singular that the name 
bestowed by this old alchemist upon this interesting substance, so many 
years ago, should have proved so prophetic of what the physiologists of 
our day should discover to be its proper uses ! 

It is well known that phosphorus is exceedingly combustible, and that 
it can only be preserved by keeping it excluded from the atmosphere or co- 
vered with water. When brought into contact with the oxygen contained 
in the air we breathe, it at once takes fire spontaneously, and burns with 
the brightest light, and produces intense heat. When this combustible 
substance is stored away in the human brain, it can only be consumed by 
being brought in contact with the air we breathe. 

When we inhale a full inspiration, the air which we breathe passes in. 
through the nostrils and down the air-tube into the air-cells, appended to 
the ends of the air-tubes, and while the blood circulates through the mi- 
nute blood-vessels that cover the thin walls of the air-cells, it absorbs the 
oxygen or vital principle of the atmosphere contained in the air-cells, and 
the blood at once becomes oxydized, and returning from the lungs to 
the heart, it is quickly forced up into the brain; when the oxygen which the 
blood has absorbed from the air we breathe in the lungs, is brought in 
contact with the phosphorus contained in the brain, it sets it on fire, in 
order that our " thoughts may breathe and our words may burn," as the 
poet has so appropriately described it. Now though we may not be able 
to describe what the mind is, still we can define and explain all of the won- 
derful phenomena that attend its manifestation. The consumption of 
phosphorus is as necessary to the manifestation of mental power or moral 
feeling, as fuel to the fire or oil to the lamp, and when we examine the 
farnace and find it full of ashes, we know that a large amount of fuel has 
been consumed to produce the ashes. After the profound exercise of the 
intellectual faculties or moral sentiments and feelings, there will be great 
nervous prostration, and the urine and other secretions of the body will 
contain a greatly increased quantity of phosphoric acid, which can only 
be produced by the combustion of phosphorus in oxygen gas, as already 
described. All persons will notice the enormous deposits of phosphates 
in the urine, after hard study or great excitement. 

Brain Food. 

Food, which abounds in phosphorus, is indispensable for the growtih 
and development of the brain, and manifestations of its power in aftet 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 01^ REASON. I4I 

life, and it is for this reason that nations and individuals who are so hajv 
pily situated as to secure the greatest abundance of those kinds of fooa 
containing a large supply of phosphorus, will be enabled to maintain the 
highest degree of mental power and moral excellence. Wheat bread, 
peas, beans, lentils, milk, eggs, and fish, abound in phosphorus, and it is 
especially worthy of note, that those people who live in countries border- 
ing upon the ocean, and whose diet is largely composed of this kind of 
food, have always excelled in mental ability. G-reece, Italy and Great 
Britain, and in our own country the inhabitants of New England are 
striking examples of this important fact. People who eat fat pork, 
sausage, ham, fine-flour bread, cakes, pastry, with strong tea and cofi"ee, 
and other strong carbonaceous food, containing little or no phosphorus, 
or hrain food, never did. and never will excel in intellectual activity or 
moral excellence. 

When the brain and nervous system is exhausted from over-excitement, 
or prostrated by disease, or from insufficient or inferior diet, very great 
advantage may be obtained from the use of food containing the phos- 
phates, and also the use of phosphates of lime, iron, potash, soda, &c., 
taken as a part of our food, immediately after eating. 

Nutrition of the Brain. 

The brain is the largest consumer of blood of any organ in the body. 
It is estimated that there is about twenty-eight pounds of blood in the 
whole body, and that more than one-sixth part of all the blood in the 
body is sent to the brain, and that consequently the brain receives six 
times as much blood as any other organ in the body, of equal size and 
weight. 

Now, it follows as a necessary consequence, that any habit or indul- 
gence which impairs the powers of digestion will impoverish the blood, 
and weaken the brain and nerves. In fact, more nervous debility is pro- 
duced by indigestion than by all other causes combined. The stomach is 
to the human brain what the roots are to the tree or plant. Cut off the 
roots, and all parts of the tree — the leaves, flowers, and fruit, will soon 
wither and perish. As well might a lady or gentleman strive to cultivate 
a vine or a plant in their garden, without any roots to it, as strive to cul- 
tivate their intellectual faculties and moral sentiments without observing 
the laws of healthy digestion and perfect nutrition. 

In fact, the world is full of mental and moral dyspeptics, victims of mono- 
mania or hypochondria, half crazy or idiotic, made so by indulgence in vicious 
habits of eating, and other wicked indulgences, that have weakened or des- 
troyed the powers of digestion and nutrition. Insanity and idiocy are not 
diseases of the mind, but of the body. The mind is immortal and immat&- 



142 



TPiE twe;ntie:th ce:ntury age oi^ reason. 



ridl^ and immortality and immateriality are totally incapable of any phys- 
ical disease, whatever. Weakness and disease of the stomach causes weak- 
ness of the mental faculties, insanity, idiocy, &c. 

Look at many of the miserable victims of indigestion, with their with- 
ered and vacant countenances, unstrung nerves, feeble perceptions, and 
half idiotic expression, resolution all gone, totally demoralized, and then 
you begin to comprehend some of the disastrous consequences of the 
wicked indulgence of those passions and appetites which destroy the or- 
gMis of digestion and nutrition. 

Nerves of the Brain. 
The brain gives off Fig. 111. 

twelve pairs of nerves, 
which pass out through 
small openings at the 
base of the skull, and 
are called cranial nerves, 
while the spinal cord 
gives off thirty-one pairs 
of nerves, which pass 
out through small open- 
ings in the spinal canal, 
called the spinal nerves. 

The Olfactory 

Nerves. 

The first pair of cra- 
nial nerves. No. 6, are 
distributed to the cavi- 
ty of the nose, to man- 
ifest the sense of smell, 
and they are totally use- 
less for the manifesta- 
tion of any other sense. 
If they are cut with a 
knife or pierced with a pin there will be no pain produced. In fact, they 
are totally dead and insensible to all external influences, except the odor- 
iferous particles which float in the atmosphere. These little nerves ena- 
ble us to catch the perfumes of every flower, and the odors of every zone! 
The Optic Nerves. 

The second pair of cranial nerves, No. 7, are distributed to the interior 
of tne eyes, to manifest the sense of vision, and they are only useful to see 
with. If cut with a knife, or pierced with a pin, there will be no pain pro- 




Brain divided through the middle, showing the Inside of the 
Right Hemisphere. No. 1, Convolutions of the Brain , No. 3, 
Medulla Oblongata; No. 4, Spinal Cord; No. 5, Fifth Ventricle; 
No. 6, Olfactory Nerve; No. 7, Optic Nerve; No. 8, Eye Ball; 
No. 9, Motor Nerve of the Eye ; No, 10, Patheticus ; No. 11, Tri- 
fecial ; No. 12, Abducentes ; No. 13, Portio Dura ; No. 14, Portio 
Mollis ; No. 15, Glosso-pharyngeal Nerve No. 16, Pneumogastric 
Nerve; No. 17, Spinal Accessory Nerve; No. 18, Hypoglossal 
Nerves. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. I43 

diiced. They are totally dead and unimpressible to all eternal in- 
fluences, except the rays of light, and when the rays of light fall 
upon their delicate extremities all nature is quickly filled with 
beautiful objects. 



As the above article has described the composition of the brain 
so clearly that one can easily understand how readily these com- 
ponent parts may be injured by the use of alcohol or tobacco. 

No one has ever seen God, and no one has ever seen a thought, 
but they have seen the effects of thought on man by electricity to 
be formed in its component parts in mother earth. No one ever 
saw the thought that Benjamin Franklin received while playing 
with a kite. He felt the electrical current and the inspiration of 
the Almighty gave him an insight into its subtle force, such as 
gave the world the mighty factor, now more potent that any other, 
which was the beginning and the discovery of the use of electric- 
ity. These inherent qualities were in Franklin, but were produced 
with the gradual development of the brain. No doubt, his was an 
electrical thought, and, as it were, made the connection for this 
electricity to come to the earth for the world's good. 

Unless the brain is strongly inflated with this force of electricity, 
the body cannot live. The secret of life is with the generating and 
storing of electricity; therefore, we are as an electrical clock, 
which is wound up to run three score years and ten, but by reason 
of strength, it may run four score years. But if man persists in 
the use of alcohol and tobacco, he will wilfully shorten his own 
life, for they have a tendency to dry up the fluids of the body, 
which support the brain. 

If the common laborer allows the physical body to grow up to 
a man's size before he attempts to educate himself, he will lose 
the opportunity of developing the brain, for when once the crani- 
um is formed, there is not room for the expansion of the brain, 
and it is much easier to make embrazures of intelligence on the 
brain before he or she has come to maturity. 

But the young brain being very susceptible to embrazures, what 
may we expect of the coming generation, when we have 250,000 
saloons and 150,000 tobacco stores, the sight of which make em- 
brazures on the brain of our growing young men? But is there 
no remedy for this condition of affairs ? Yes. 

First — IvCt the government abolish all of the above-named 



144 I' HE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

places, then pass a law that any person possessing over a certain 
amount of money shall be taxed so much, and all this tax money, 
together with $10,000,000 that should be appropriated by the gov- 
ernment, be spent in making better environments for the laboring 
people, and our land would soon be filled with people that would 
grow bright and intelligent, but otherwise would remain in ob- 
scurity. 

For example, take a child of some foreign nationality, just 
newly born, take it from its parents and place it with an American 
family and let it grow up among American people and become ac- 
customed to their ways. When the child becomes older and more 
mature, it will have almost lost the characteristics of its own coun- 
try. On the contrary, if left in its natural environments and 
among its own people, with its own parents, it would grow up as 
one of them. The material of the child would not be changed, it 
would have its native blood in it but it would become different be- 
cause of its surroundings and environments. 

The brain of all children is smooth and the furrows or embras- 
ures of intelligence are made through the eye and ear, which make 
impressions of intelligence. The same results would appear if we 
should take a well developed child and place him with another 
class of people. There are many things supposed to be hereditary 
which are not. 

There are many traits and characteristics in the constitutional 
makeup of a person which philosophers and others attribute to 
heredity that is not heredity, but the traits are largely due to the 
person's environments from birth, and often before birth; there- 
fore, this subject of the human race is a very important one and 
should be treated with much reason, as I have said. Because of 
its physical constitution, every act it does is in view of comfort 
and happiness, and as that is the most valuable commodity on the 
market, it should have the right of way, in preference to the com- 
mercial interest. It overbalances the question of tariff, free trade 
and any other interest that at the present time is occupying the 
human mind. Each person in his sphere and classification makes 
an attempt to excel, for he fancies that it will bring temporary 
happiness to himself, and then to others ; but to many who are at- 
tempting to solve the problem of how the people can acquire the 
greatest amount of happiness during their stay in this world, the 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. I45 

many prophecies give so many ways for securing happiness that 
the human race wants something rehable and enduring. 

If we could turn a philosopher's stone into a substance like ra- 
dium, the world would make advancements on something tangi- 
ble, but we must all do something to secure the greatest amount 
of happiness. 

But owing to the slight advancement on the line of happiness 
for the human race, since the Pilgrims first landed on Plymouth 
Rock, I venture, with others, to give a solution to the problem of 
happiness. 

First — Let every person remember that he is a being created by 
God, in the beginning, sometime, somewhere. Then, to follow out 
the line of thought that is Scriptural : "Study to show thyself ap- 
proved unto God as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed." 

For the human race there is a spiritual realm as well as a physi- 
cal, and we know that there must be a physical body before there 
can be a spiritual body. Perhaps the command of this verse is 
more important to the United States than the verse that says : "Go 
ye into all the world and preach the Gospel," especially to a heath- 
en nation, before making the claim of the Christian, that is as a 
nation, we must first go back to the principles that were planted 
on Plymouth Rock, for constitutional makeup of our people has 
brought about in the United States a condition that is well defined 
by the Master in the following words : "The tares grew up and 
choked the good seed," which had been planted by our forefath- 
ers. Because of the great influx of the various nationalities, the 
opening up of the many rich gold fields and fertile soil, there has 
been but little opportunity for man to study his physical condition 
and to settle on anything positive. But before man is in proper 
condition to study how to make himself and others happy, he must 
disabuse his mind of the origin of man on the Darwinian theory 
and accept the fact that man was created as all other animals are 
created, at the hand of God, who had the power to create every- 
thing in a climate that was adapted to the condition of life, and 
not let the climate make the animal fit to live. 

We have never known, in the history of six thousand years, the 
climate to change an animal from what it was when first created. 
The same is applied to man, and the only change you can make in 
man by climate or environments is on his brain, which is proven 
by the negro race. 



146 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

If one should inform himself of the construction of their crani- 
um and the many millions of cells in the brain capable of receiv- 
ing impressions, as given in Dr. Gleason's works, they would agree 
with the writer that the whole philosophy of man's capability lies 
in one member of the brain, and he would not have any further 
use for the Darwinian theory, that man has risen from an oyster 
to a monkey and then to a man, and that the same power that cre- 
ated the oyster had power to take a rib from man and make a 
woman. For our God hath all power ; He can combine three ani- 
mals in one body as heretofore mentioned. 

As the brain of man is all there is of him worth considering, it 
would be wise to make that the main subject. 

The first thing to consider is that man is a living being ; he lives 
by heat and dies because of the absence of the same. As he takes 
food into his system that was prepared by the rays of the sun, and 
taken internally by the combination of air and water, it generates 
heat and the same is transmitted to all parts of the body through 
the action of the heart, and what the piston is to the engine, the 
heart is to the human system. But the heat is all generated by the 
combustion of the cold made by the same. 

Then the mechanical power is the combustion generated in the 
boiler and as the engine depends on the quality of the fuel which 
is used, so is it with man. The same principle runs to his pro- 
creative powers and the results are the same. This can be proven 
by the medical books of those who have made this subject a study. 

Therefore, reason shows that the use of narcotics is hurtful to 
the pro-creative powers of man. Everything in nature demands 
perfection in order to produce perfection ; the producer or pro- 
creator must necessarily keep his physical body pure in order to 
create within himself a substance that will produce that which is 
pure. The best quality cannot be produced only by those Vv^ho live 
in accordance with nature, as God created themi. By living as the 
animal lives, on substance that is adapted to his system. The same 
will develop of its own kind, that which is perfect. This cannot 
be said of man, for he will, by his own acts, force into his physical 
body tobacco and liquor, until his whole being becomes saturated 
and the effects cannot help being transmitted to the child in the 
embryonic form. The writer can recall many who were desirous 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. I47 

to perpetrate their posterity, but when the child came into this 
world, it seemed to lack the power to live, and as the air would 
enter the lungs the child's heart seemed to lack power to set the 
blood in motion, and in a few hours or days it would pass away 
— and there are many living to-day who live under unfavorable 
conditions because of the nicotine in their father's system at the 
time of conception. 

They may not realize it, but women who are compelled to en- 
dure the disagreeable breath of a rum-drinking and tobacco- 
chewing companion, are so created, constitutionally, that their 
olfactory nerves become accustomed to it and do not notice it. 
But, admitting this to be true, it does not do away with the injur- 
ious effects. 

We know that the worst diseases known to mortals are transt 
mitted by inhaling the breath and depositing the seed of disease 
in the lungs and thereby affecting the blood. Therefore, the wife 
of a tobacco user can become so accustomed to the fumes of 
tobacco that there is but little thought about its unhealthiness or 
the transmitting of disease to her prospective offspring, but there 
are thousands of children who die annually from these effects. 
The parents do not attribute it to this, but rather to a dispensation 
of Providence, and there are thousands of women who are nerv- 
ous, tired and worn-out by the absorption of tobacco into their 
system. 

This statement is not without proof with those who take notice 
how often the widow of a tobacco-using man will take 
on a new lease of Hfe. Is it any wonder to those who know of its 
effects? We know that those who use tobacco until their system 
is saturated cannot remove the odor even by taking a turkish bath. 
The odor of tobacco can be detected on the skin of the man or any 
book or garment he may carry or wear. If man would have the 
same regard for himself that he has for his animals, especially 
those who raise stock, there would be but little trouble as to what 
to do with the human race in order to establish a higher ideal of 
living. But as it is now, the- lame, the halt, the blind, all marry, 
and we see the effects on the coming posterity, and as each gen- 
eration transmits the deteriorating effects, the manhood of the 
nation is impaired. The results are very apparent. With some 



T48 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 01^ REASON. 

the brain is affected, others the heart or lungs and also the eyes. 
And this latter may be largely the cause of our having so many 
children that are compelled very early in life to wear glasses. If 
the women or mothers should become addicted to the narcotic 
liabit, as the men are, it is very evident that the posterity of the 
human race would die out, as it would be in accordance with 
nature's laws. This is clearly seen in the vegetable kingdom. If 
the soil of mother earth becomes saturated with poisonous quali- 
ties, nature may attempt to cause a germ that is in the seed to 
come forth, but the poison that is in the soil is not conducive to its 
growth and it soon withers away. All scientists tell us our whole 
body is made of the same component parts as the earth. Then is 
it not reasonable to suppose that if a dose of poison to mother 
earth causes vegetation to cease, how can a child escape premature 
•death when the affliction is put on him by his father or mother? 
But because he runs, plays and romps, they do not realize what a 
narrow escape the child has had. It acts no differently from other 
children, and they do not realize that nature has interceded and 
made an attempt to restore everything to perfection. By the play- 
ful disposition implanted in the child, he or she is developed, and 
w^ith God's sunshine and pure air they make advances toward per- 
fection. But the prophecy of the Scriptures is not proven un- 
true. The sins of the parents are visited upon the children unto 
the third and fourth generation, and the imitative nature of the 
boy, when he sees a tobacco store, naturally looks on it as a good 
thing for man, and why not for him ? And but for God's inter- 
ference, many who are with us would have gone to an early grave 
borne by this awful curse. 

Thereby the fulfilment of the Scripture is verified. 

The stock raiser's first object is to produce the best kind of 
stock with an idea of the noble and beautiful. Then the selection 
of food and the quantity, and as he learns, by experience, what is 
best to do in order to secure best results, he pursues that course 
that will produce the best animals, because that is rnost profitable. 

If he thought that tobacco would add anything to their beauty 
he would use it. Supposing a stock raiser should attempt to edu- 
cate a hog to use tobacco and drink lager beer, and should succeed. 
The first impression he would have would be to put him on exhi- 



THK TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. I49 

bition at some country fair, to show what tobacco would do for 
the hog. He would be willing to pay a nice sum for this privilege.. 
Man comes nearer to imitating the hog than any other animal, and 
is it not an exhibition of man's ability to carry of¥ a large amount 
of liquor that lead men to pay $500.00 for the privilege of feeding 
a human hog on lager beer, which comes nearest to being swill. 
It is unnatural for man to have a desire for such, until he has be- 
come habituated to the desire and bartenders seek to educate the 
hog-man to follow out Scriptural interpretation of the prodigal 
son, who found a position in caring for and swilling the swine. 
The Scriptures say that you cannot add to yourself one jot or tittle, 
and if the young man presumes that a cigar or pipe stuck in his 
mouth, when driving along holding the reins of his steed in one 
hand, adds dignity to himself, why would it not add dignity to 
the horse to have a pipe or cigar in its bit also? Man being the 
more educated of the two animals, should be in a position to know 
of its evil effects and should abstain from the use of tobacco. 

In some countries of the world, as in India and China, the un- 
educated man acts as a horse in the shafts, pulling the better edu- 
cated man. That man will use tobacco and opium, but the educa- 
ted man knows of its effects and abstains from it. This condition 
of affairs in foreign countries is largely due the United States. 
We are exporting annually thousands of dollars' worth of 
tobacco and intoxicating liquors to those countries, and at the 
same time the Church of the United States is sending out mis- 
sionaries to all parts of the world. Indeed, it might be well said 
that a cargo of tobacco and liquor and probably two or three mis- 
sionaries will be on the same steamboat, all bound for the same 
port. 

The effects of these evils in some countries have become so bad 
that there have been special representatives sent to our country to 
intercede in behalf of the subjects of their countries, pleading that 
we stop exporting tobacco and liquor to their people. But to all 
this we have paid no attention, and this is a type of American civ- 
ilization, and yet we call ourselves a Christian nation. 

But the man in America who is educated and does the riding, 
uses tobacco and liquor and comes home drunk, and beats his wife 
and abuses his children. Education has but little to do, regarding; 



I50 the; twe:ntieth century age of reason. 

the use of narcotics, especially tobacco. Take, for instance. Gen- 
eral Grant, who was an inveterate smoker, and though advised 
time after time by his physicians that he should give up its use, he 
persisted in its use and, as we all know, was laid prematurely in 
th grave by tobacco cancer in the tongue, as the result of his al- 
most constant use of tobacco. 

The writer, on one occasion, had the pleasure of seeing General 
Grant while riding in his private carriage. I noticed that even 
then he was smoking. He conquered the Confederate army, for 
which he received great honor, but habit conquered him. There- 
fore, if honors are given to those that conquer, honors should be 
given to Habit, inasmuch as Habit conquered General Grant, and 
it has occurred to the writer that it might have been well, when 
the government was erecting the statue to General Grant, to have 
had carved in it his profile with a cigar in his mouth, as emble- 
matic of the conqueror and the conquered. 

This would stand as a great object lesson to the men and boys 
of our country. There are those to-day who think that a cigar 
b)etween a man's lips adds dignity to him, but if it does not add dig- 
nity to a statue, why should it add any dignity to a man ? 

THE NEGRO PROBLEM. 

The negro, or African race, with all their superstition and 
credulity and treachery, which seem to be inbred in their consti- 
tutional makeup, was, apparently, so designated by the Creator in 
order that they might be adapted to the clim.ate where they were 
found. Their cranium has a thick skill, and the same is transmit- 
ted from generation to generation, they having little chance for 
development. What development has taken place is largely due 
to the amalgamation with the white race and the advancements 
which have been made in intellectual lines. If placed by them- 
selves, this would very soon disappear and they would return to 
their original condition, because of their inherited propensities. 

The same is true of the American Indian. Because of the con- 
struction of his skull, there is but little chance of brain expansion. 
His treachery and superstition is not due to his dark skin, but 
because of the construction of his brain, in order that he might 
be adapted to the exposure that would be required of him, that 



THE twe:ntie:th century age of reason. 151 

he might obtain a subsistance and live. The dark color of their 
skin was given to protect them from the rays of the sun, v^hich 
is often so intense as to need a protector or shield for their body. 

In their primitive stage they v^ere compelled to go in nude form 
and because of their inbred nature they were deprived of sufficient 
reasoning power, and they lacked the capabilities for any other 
life. They lack the power to receive or practice the moral princi- 
ples of the Christian religion given to a large part of the race. 

We, as a nation, have saddled on ourselves a burden that is 
impossible to get rid of, and as long as we are compelled to come 
in contact with them, they are a menace to the whole race and a 
burden to them and if this is not so, ask any housewife or man 
who employs them as laborers, and if the verdict is not against 
them, as being in anyway conducive to the white man's spiritual 
culture, I will cease to give any further opinion. We know from 
observation that their tendancies are bad. 

They fail to measure up in a practical way to any standard of 
religious principles ; they do not possess the spirit of returning a 
good act to the one who has favored them, but every act is that 
of revenge. 

These tendencies are no fault of their own — they belong to them 
as one of their inheritances. They lack the power to reason of the 
phychological effect their actions have upon their mistress. This 
is the same with the white or colored race. As long as they let 
the animal have the right of way in controlling themselves, the 
Christian religion will have a hard struggle to ingraft the princi- 
ples of its efficiency in making them better citizens. 

The colored race have peculiarities such as are transmitted to 
the Avhite people when they are associated with them for a long 
priod. As there is many different opinions regarding the race, I 
will insert a clipping from the Philadelphia Ledger, placing the 
responsibility upon the white man for making the negro what 
he is: 

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE WHITE MAN FOR MAKING 
THE NEGRO WHAT HE IS. 

To the Editor of the Public Ledger: 

Some years agO, in one of the Carolinas, I spent several days 
in the home of a minister to the colored people — a highly educated 



1 52 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

white man. He told me "that he had come South with great faith 
in the negro, and thought that he was being very unfairly treated 
by the whites, but after several years of earnest work among the 
race he felt that the whites were justified in their treatment. But, 
he added, "if the negro is unchaste, corrupt, untrustworthy, the 
whites have made him so ; he is but copying more openly their 
sins." 

When we have grown to realize more clearly the dynamics of 
thought we will understand why the negro, impressionable and 
susceptible as he is, is becoming charged with the hidden batteries 
of lust and kindred evils. 

Is there not also a danger in the theology teaching that a man 
committing a crime like Rufus Johnson can be worked with a few 
days by ministers, confess his sin and sorrow for it, and from the 
gallows go right into glory, into Heaven, among the purest of 
God's angels? 

Should not our teaching be, rather, that, while sin may be for- 
given if we truly repent, its effects may last beyond the grave? 
Have not we this demonstrated here? Why not hereafter? A 
crime can be committed in a few seconds, the wrongdoer may be 
sincerely repentant, but all the same it takes years of uphill work 
to overcome the results of it. But that act would not be possible if 
every avenue of thought were guarded. 

As a woman farmer in the East, I have employed both colored 
and white help, and in sickness or any sorrow that they could un- 
derstand the colored men and women have been more sympathetic, 
more helpful, as a rule, than the white. Is not the whole secret 
embodied in the appeal to their higher self and trust in its re- 
sponse ? 

I somehow think if we would but remember that the colored 
man is only a man, after all, with just a darker skin, it might be 
better for black and white alike. 

For all we know, he may prove yet "a stone that the builders 
rejected" and become in his degree a savior to our country. 

IvAURA LIPPINCOTT PANCOAST. 

WooDSTowN, N. J., February 12, 1906. 



PROHIBITION A CIVIC NECESSITY. 

"Nations perish because their foundations crumble." Fate is 
not the power that determines the destiny of a commonwealth. 
Immutable laws of justice govern nations as well as individuals. 
Civic righteousness is the only safeguard against national disin- 
tegration ; the only sure foundation of democratic government is 
a pure and undefiled citizenship. Yet our nation has unfurled 
the starry banner over an institution that is sapping its vitality 
and corrupting the morals of its citizens. Americans boast of the 
"land of the free," yet they are slaves to a traffic which controls 
more wealth, produces more poverty, causes more crime, and 
blights more lives than any other evil with which human progress 
contends. Under such conditions, the foundation of this republic 
is not free from decaying influences. 

The general use of alcoholic liquors i» a serious danger to pub- 
lic health. Because of the delusive effects of alcohol upon the 
human system, it is used for the most contradictory conditions — 
heat and cold, strength and weakness, health and disease. But 
the apparent life and vigor it infuses are but the false means of 
concealing its depressing effect. It deadens the sensibilities and 
ruins the intellect. It defrauds a man of his vitality and eventu- 
ally produces the most deadly diseases. These baneful effects are 
likewise visited upon posterity. Investigation shows that if the 
offspring of non-drinkers, eighty-two per cent, are sound, while 
of those of inebriates only seventeen per cent, are healthy. Surely, 
this nation cannot remain indifferent to this treacherous enemy 
which is corrupting its youth, contaminating its homes, endanger- 
ing the public health, and impoverishing the physical vigor of its 
people. 

This direful traffic retards the production of wealth. It de- 
creases producing capacity and throws upon the public the bur- 
den of poverty, inefficiency, the repression of vice and the punish- 
ment of crime. It violates the fundamental principles of com- 
mercial supply and demand. Instead of supplying the natural 

153 



154 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

wants of man, it aggravates his abnormal desires and subjects 
him to the havoc of vice and degradation. Thus he becomes a 
minus factor in the economic welfare of society, if not an actual 
burden. The argument is advanced that it lies with the individual 
to control his passions and thus preserve his strength and moral 
equilibrium. But what shall be done with the thousands who are 
slaves to the appetite, struggling to be free, yet tempted every day 
by the presence of the inviting saloon? No, it is not merely the 
appetite towards which efforts must be directed, it is the nefar- 
ious traffic itself at which we must strike. By reason of the vast 
pecuniary interests involved it has lost all regard for the higher 
virtues and every means is used to tempt the weak. 

The liquor traffic makes the plea of being a great manufacturing 
and business enterprise and thus a benefactor to the country, while 
in reality it is the arch-enemy of economic, as well as social and 
moral interests. It does not promote but hinders civic welfare. It 
robs of their hard-earned wages the very ones upon whom the wel- 
fare of the nation rests — the common people. When a laborer 
spends his money for drink he receives no adequate return. On 
the contrary, his family is made wretched, the man himself is im- 
poverished physically, intellectually, and morally, his position is 
imperiled, his money wasted. Where is the economic justification 
for the maintenance of such a national peril ? 

It cannot be said that the government is enriched by such a 
death-dealing traffic. The statistics of 1900 reveal these startling 
facts : the actual cost of the nation's liquor business, direct and 
indirect, reached the enormous sum of $2,805,000,000. The rev- 
enue from the traffic for the same year amounted to $170,000,000 
or less than one dollar for every sixteen dollars of the cost. Is it 
not the height of economic folly to uphold such an enterprise ? Yet 
this is the kind of economy for which the license parties stand. All 
the rewards purchased by this vast expenditure are crime, disease, 
and death. Is this the truth? Listen to the answer coming from 
that sage of all time, King Solomon of Judea, as it echoes and re- 
echoes through the corridors of thirty centuries: ''The drunkard 
shall come to poverty." Hear it from the thousands of men, 
women, and children, roaming the streets of the cities to-night, 
out of work, penniless, homeless, hungry, living lives of lust and 



i 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 55 

sin. Would you know the reason for this degeneration? From 
far and near comes the reply in tones of anguish: drink caused 
it all. When will America awake from her lethargy and open her 
eyes to the existence of this awful curse, which seeks to destroy 
the very foundations of her welfare and prosperity? 

The sale of alcoholic liquors is either for or against the social 
welfare, and upon this proposition it must stand or fall. It has 
been shown to be inherently evil, in that it is injurious to the 
health, wealth, and morals of society, that it strikes at the very 
basis of civic welfare, and therefore has no valid reason for ex- 
istence. Legal sanction only adds to the complexity of the prob- 
lem. It is a principle of representative government that whatever 
a state or an individual does through the agency of another, the 
doer is held responsible legally, logically, and morally. When the 
state, for a sum of money, licenses and permits the sale of liquor, 
it becomes an active partner in the business. It sells its God-given 
birthright of civic purity, and the citizen who votes to support the 
system compromises his manhood. Behold the greatest paradox 
of the age ! No sane man will uphold the traffic from a standpoint 
of ethics. Yet, cursed of God and man, it lives ! Yea, prospers 
and rules ! Having purchased for a mess of pottage its right to 
exist, it subsidizes the press, intimidates politicians, dominates 
political parties, controls elections, disregards the laws, outrages 
all decency, and defies interference. 

But what shall be done, and how ? The liquor traffic is criminal 
and should be dealt with accordingly. The best interests of Amer- 
ican citizens demand its abolition. There can be no compromise. 
He who would try to regulate this evil should first try to regulate 
Mt. Sinai. The traffic has no constitutional defense. No man has 
an inherent right to sell intoxicants, is the decision of the Supreme 
Court. Then the only logical and complete solution of the prob- 
lem is national and absolute prohibition. This is the only remedy 
assuring permanent results. It strikes at the very root of the evil, 
not only by condemning the retail business, but by placing the 
manufacture and importation of liquors forever under the ban of 
law. 

Where is the power that shall make this final victory possible? 
American citizens, it lies with you — you, who cherish the right 



156 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

and despise the wrong — you, who love the flag of liberty and jus- 
tice and would die to sustain its honor. The responsibility cannot 
be evaded. Shall we heed the call? Shall we rise to this God- 
given opportunity and purge our fair land of this vile traffic ? Or 
shall we compromise conscience, and be led aside from duty by the 
flatteries of demagogues, the lust of office, or the greed for gain? 
No ; through the rifted clouds of sin and corruption is seen a star 
of hope. Public sentiment is growing. From the halls of learning 
is pouring forth an army of leaders filled with the spirit of patriot- 
ism and reform. The honor of American citizenship will respond 
to the appeal for righteous action, and under God, the glorious vic- 
tory is assured. 

THE NATION'S DRINK BILL. 

Can the Nation Aiford It? The annual drink bill of the United 
States, according to government statistics for 1904 ($1,451,633,- 
379), is about one and one-half billion of dollars, or more than 
one-half of all the money in the United States. 

This means that if all the money in the United States and the 
national drink bill were equally divided among the eighty million 
inhabitants, every person in the United States would have $33.46, 
of which $17.15, or more than half, would be spent for drink, or, 
the production of gold and silver in the LTnited States would be 
sufficient to pay the drink bill of the American people only a 
month and a half. 

Compared With Other Expenses. Some idea of the magnitude 
of the drink bill may be gained by comparing it with the amount 
spent for other things, or for the expenses of government. 

One-Third More Than the Whole. Counting out women, chil- 
dren, and asbtainers, it is estimated that the drink bill is confined 
to thirty-five per cent, of the population, yet the amount spent in 
the United States for drink is a little more than one-half the total 
wages of all wage earners, salaried officials, clerks, etc., that is, 
less money is expended for food, clothes, and the necessities of life 
by all the people than is spent for drink by one-third of the people. 

Unjust Distribution of Wealth. This means that other trades 
are not getting their fair share of the nation's income, since the 



THK TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 157 

distillers, brewers, and saloonkeepers take the larger part of the 
people's income, leaving the smaller part to be divided among all 
other trades and lines of business. 

Drink Bill Would Care for the Old and Educate the Young, 
The money spent for drink would meet all the net expenses of the 
government and not only pension the disabled soldiers and give an 
old-age pension of twenty dollars a month to all persons over sixty 
years of age, but would also provide for the education of each child 
in the United States from five to eighteen years of age. 

Would Increase Postal Service. The two-cent letter rate and 
reduced postal rates have proved a great boon, enlarging business, 
uniting families more closely, and increasing the intelligence of 
the people through a wider distribution of papers and magazines. 
The money spent for drink would establish a penny postal and 
parcel rate and practically bring free mail delivery to every ham- 
let and farm. 

No Value Received. But the tremendous waste does not stop 
with the money cost of drink. Our great national drink bill of one 
billion and a half dollars is made up of nickels and dimes, and 
each dime or nickel is not given for value received, but is ex- 
changed for that which does not give happiness, health, or wealth. 
It is money taken not only from the drunkard and his family, but 
from the grocer, clothier, furniture maker, and all other trades 
and industries. It is a waste which touches all. 

The Bvil of Drink. Its chief mischief only begins when it has 
passed into circulation. It returns after many days in crime, dis- 
order, disease, poverty, and all the abomination that drink causes. 
The expenditure of one and a half billion of dollars every year for 
drink menaces not only the one-third who drink, but all the peo- 
ple, since all the people suffer more or less from this evil. It is of 
grave importance to all whether this vast sum of money should 
or should not be spent in drink for a third of the people and diver- 
ted from its rightful purpose in feeding, clothing, and supplying 
the needs of all. 

DOES IT PAY? 

A Common Error. The liquor industry is thought to enrich the 
government through the revenue derived from special taxes and 



158 ^ THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

the license fees imposed upon the manufacture, importation, and 
sale of intoxicating liquors. The belief is common that these re- 
ceipts are so great that the government would be seriously impov- 
erished if the sale of liquor was prohibited. 

How the Revenue is Divided. The United States receives a lit- 
tle more than three-fifths of the money. More than one-fifth is 
paid to the cities and towns as license fees, and the remaining frac- 
tion of a fifth is divided between the states and counties. For the 
year 1904 the whole amount of the income from licensing the sale 
of intoxicating liquors was for the United States, the states, coun- 
ties and municipalities, $230,810,124, which amount is used to help 
pay the running expenses of the government. But we shall see 
whether this is the clear gain to the nation which the people com- 
monly suppose it to be. 

Direct and Indirect Cost. The liquor bill of the country is usu- 
ally presented under two heads, the direct and the indirect cost, 
the latter including items of added expense caused by intemper- 
ance, such as courts, jails, and charity. 

Cost of Crime. All admit that one of the greatest causes of 
crime is drink. Eighty million dollars is spent each year for the 
convicting and care of criminals, maintenance of penitentiaries 
and jails, and the support of constables and police. The most con- 
servative estimate charges one-half of this expense to drink, while 
authorities equally reliable say that four-fifths of the expense of 
crime is due to drink. This means that the government spends 
from one-sixth to one-fourth of all the money it receives from 
drink in the effort to punish crime committed by those who drink ! 

Cost of Public Institutions. The government also expends mil- 
lions to build asylums for the insane and feeble-minded, hospitals, 
almshouses, homes, and orphanages, supporting and caring for the 
inmates at an annual expense of fifty-five million dollars. The use 
of intoxicating liquors produces fifty-nine per cent, of the insanity 
of the country and is one of the chief causes of poverty. The 
drunkards' children are often idiots and must be cared for in 
asylums built and maintained for this purpose. One-tenth of what 
the government receives from drink must be expended on those 
rendered unfortunate by drink. 

Public Charity. Vast sums are spent for the out-door relief, or 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 59 

support of the poor each year, especially during the winter months. 
According to the very lowest estimate, twelve million dollars are 
annually spent in this way to alleviate poverty caused directly by 
drink. 

Dealing only with the government's share of the expenses of the 
crime, insanity, idiocy, and poverty caused by intoxicating liquors, 
we find that it costs the country from one-third to one-half of all 
the revenue received from drink to meet the expense caused by 
drink. 

Cost of Private Charity. New York City alone uses annually 
ten million dollars in private charity. There is pressing need, 
hunger, and want in every village, town, and city. It is estimated 
that $200,000,000 is annually given away in charity by private in- 
dividuals, and according to the lowest estimate at least one-third 
of this goes to diminish the suffering caused by drink. 

Cost in Bad Debts. Neglect of business by men of drinking 
habits is often a cause of bankruptcy, while it is well known that 
drinking men spend cash in the saloons and go in debt to the mer- 
chant. Many of these debts are never paid, and all prices would 
be lower if the merchant were not obliged to add to the selling 
cost of his produce an amount sufficient to cover this loss. The 
sober man who saves his money, is thus made the drunkard's 
proxy and must pay not only his own bills but also the drunkard's. 
The cost of these losses to the community is estimated at ninety 
million dollars every year. 

Cost in Accidents. Employers of labor state that the drinker is 
more liable to accident than the sober workman. The danger to 
machinery, horses, and vehicles, agricultural implements, etc., 
through carelessness of drinking employes, is great, and the cost 
of intemperance through accident every year amounts to fifty mil- 
lion dollars. 

Loss of Production. An investigation made by a large manu- 
facturing concern in Germany showed an increase of ten per cent, 
in the amount of work done by their workmen when the firm had 
abolished their morning and afternoon recesses for beer. It is 
now regarded as a strictly scientific fact that even the moderate 
use of alcohol lessens visual and muscular power, so that the work- 
ing man who drinks always accomplishes less than does the ab- 



l6o THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

stainer, all other things being equal. Adding to this the loss of 
work by those workingmen who go on occasional sprees, of the 
great army of tramps and drunkards unfitted for work by drink, 
we have a loss that amounts to one hundred and twenty million 
dollars. 

Siopport of Drunkards' Families. The support of five hundred 
thousand drunkards' families must be counted. 

Indirect Waste. The waste through tobacco, gambling, and 
other evils traced to drink, brings the indirect cost of drink in the 
United States up to over six hundred and eighty-four million dol- 
lars, or, in other words, the use of intoxicating liquors costs the 
government and the people who comprise the government three 
times as much as all the revenue and license fees received from 
the sale of intoxicating liquors. It must also be borne in mind that 
the indirect cost of liquors is always largely borne by those who 
are sober, so that for every dollar of revenue derived from the peo- 
ple who drink, the people who do not drink must pay three dollars. 
Add to this the direct cost or retail price of one and one-half bil- 
lion dollars spent for drink, which is virtually wasted, since neither 
the man who drinks it, nor society receives any value in return — 
and we find that strong drink costs the nation TEN TIMES THE 
AMOUNT RECEIVED AS REVENUE. 

Does It Pay. From a mere money standpoint we may well ask, 
"Does it pay?" If heartache and suffering could be computed in 
dollars and cents, if dishonor and moral ruin had a money equiva- 
lent, if insanity, idiocy, disease and death could be estimated on a 
financial basis, we would have a still more just estimate of the real 
cost of the nation's drink bill. 

MANY SAY THAT PROHIBITION IS NOT PRACTICAL. 

No doubt they are sincere in their utterances, as such sayings 
are as natural to the human race as it is for them to think. There- 
fore, we expect a diversity of opinion. Some are honest in their 
expressions ; some are not. The reasons for this condition of the 
human mind are various and simply due to a matter of education, 
similar to the various religious beliefs, or. to make a comparison. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. l6l 

if there should be a committee appointed to build a bridge, they 
might agree that there was need of a bridge, but would differ re- 
garding its construction. 

All people, excepting anarchists, believe there is need of a pro- 
hibition bridge. While some believe that there should be a toll for 
going over the same, others believe that the passage should be free. 
To reason properly on this subject, we must consider why the 
prohibition bridge has not been built, and can only say it is simply 
due to disagreement regarding the way in which it should be 
'erected. 

As I have shown, all loyal citizens believe in the principle of 
prohibition where it applies to the legal side of establishing rights 
and the making of laws to protect one citizen from being imposed 
upon or injured by the other. Thereby the significance of the 
word prohibition is only the enforcement of law. 

I know of no other reason why the great diversity of opinion in 
prohibiting the sale of liquor for beverage purposes is due to three 
causes, namely: 

First — It is in politics. 

Second — The profit that is derived from the manufacture and 
sale. 

Third — The effects that the consumption of liquor produces on 
the consumer. 

Without going into extensive reasoning on the subject, while I 
note with many they have different methods to regulate this one 
subject, the liquor traffic, I will meention some few reasons why 
prohibiting the sale of liquor is practical, the political side, the 
commercial side, the physical side, the moral side. 

Before expressing my sentiments regarding the practical side of 
reasoning, that any question that enters into the injuries or bene- 
fits of mankind, is supposed to be governed by the majority. On 
the principle of the initiative and referendum this principle is 
ruled out of the two dominant political parties, whereas it should 
either be put to a test vote as by direct legislative vote. Let the 
people make their laws regarding the controlling of the same. 
But because this question is in politics due to the licensing of the 
sale, has deprived this question of its merits. Therefore, the Dem- 
•ocrat and Republican parties fail to educate the people regarding 



1 62 the; twentieth century age of reason. 

this one extensive commercial business, whereas they should have 
it ingrafted in their platform. We favor the licensing and sale of 
liquor the same as they advocate the gold standard and tariff 
questions and many other things which concern the happiness of 
homes. 

The commercial side should be considered. This can only be 
ascertained by statistics of what it produces. The advantages and 
disadvantages to taxpayers and various manufacturers and mer- 
chants. This is every man's duty and he should be educated on 
this line, as the various States have passed laws compelling the 
effects of alcohol on the human system, taught in schools, and it 
is more important that a person of mature years should have a 
more thorough knowledge of the effects that alcohol produces on 
the system, than simply receiving their knowledge by seeing a 
person intoxicated who has imbibed too freely. This kind of edu- 
cation is largely due to the beginning of the license system, be- 
cause of the evil effects. The next best thing was to regulate it 
by paying for a license for the privilege ; therefore, whatever ef- 
fect it produces, the consumer must be responsible for his own 
acts, whereas it should not be but the one that sold the license and 
those who make it possible to grant license, as the vender and the 
consumer are only acting because they are created so. They both 
apparently are unable to withstand the temptation made for them, 
due to our political system of licensing those who are employed 
and perform the act of licensing is similar to dealing in sin, as the 
outgrowth is simply of starting one into the business. This is 
similar to one starting in the electrical business ; we cannot see the 
electricity but we can see its effects. We are unable to see the 
power that grants the license, but we are able to see the effects of 
licensing. Therefore, the whole business has become a great com- 
mercial business, as it were, dealing in sin, as those who are grind- 
ing out this power are dealers in the sin business and should put 
out their sign : "So much sin sold for $5Cmd.oo." 

The moral side of this sale of intoxicating liquors is very far 
reaching. There cannot be any excuse for those who make it 
possible that a license should be granted by any political party, as 
they have an opportunity of doing otherwise, and for fear a worse 
result will happen, by supporting a license party, shows a weak- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 63. 

ness and lack of confidence that by not supporting a license party, 
that their God in whom they trust, will guide the Ship of State 
aright, by withholding their support. The principle of prohibition 
is of God and a man must repudiate the principles and be one, as 
Christ or of Baal ; as Christ said, "He that is not for me is against 
me." The same when He was cricified, and sin cannot be propor- 
tioned out to the numbers by each one bearing his fractional part 
and balance his account on someone else, as our civil laws hold 
each one responsible for his own acts, whether he be a bishop, 
preacher or layman. 

To make my way of reasoning plainer, suppose a pronounced 
infidel will talk and plead a whole year the merits of infidelity 
and at the close of each year make a confession of his misdoings 
and take communion and then afterwards continues to preach and 
talk infidelity, and the next year repeat the same act, what confi- 
dence would we have in him regarding his profession? 

To my way of seeing things in this twentieth century, there is 
but little difference between Judas betraying Christ for thirty 
pieces of silver and the present time. While Judas betrayed Christ 
through a love of money, we to-day betray His principles through 
the same motive. Why not make a test case of this great question 
by a popular vote and determine whether God or Baal shall prevail 
and whether the government shall continue to uphold the license 
question and receive revenue, or whether it shall abolish it and let 
it be controlled in the manner in which the government controls 
alcohol by denaturing it for mechanical purposes ; why not the 
government control the liquor business for medicinal purposes 
only ? Then the sayings of Christ will come to pass ''On this rock 
I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
it," thereby dissolving the partnership of the government between 
the brewer and consumer. 

The above has been written along the line of the old maxim that 
we should look to that which will "Yield the greatest amount of 
good to the greatest number of people." 

Anyone who is interested in this subject and should wish 
further and more detailed information regarding the same, can 
find it in an article headed "Liquor Traffic in Modern Civilization,"" 
in a book entitled "The Monitor." 



DARWIN THEORY REFUTED. 

God created man in His own image, thereby it is acknowledged 
lie is superior ruler over all other animals. If this was not so de- 
signed for a purpose, why did not nature stop with the lower ani- 
mals, but nature does not stop there, but continues on until it pro- 
duces the highest order of animal creation until the man-animal 
says, "What is man, that He is so mindful of him?" Then the 
same man-animal inquires where is God? This is the strongest 
evidence that there is a Creator, and the thought itself is a proof 
that there is a supreme power to make a being to reason where is 
God that I may go and find Him ? If he knew that, he would be 
equal to God in knowledge, and there would be as many Gods as 
there are people. But He made man to know so much and no 
more, and this limitation of knowledge is confined to the animal. 
The man-animal reasons from whence he came and whither he is 
^oing, fixed by the law of affinity and attraction one for the other. 
It is an evidence of man being created of God. Man was perfect 
in all his parts when he lived in a cave as he is now. He had the 
inherent qualities in him to develop, or he would not be what he 
is to-day. No other animal in creation has been given such in- 
ducements, and if an animal should be taught some tricks, it is 
done by the man-animal while climate may have something to do 
in changing the color of the animal, it does not interfere with the 
l)rain; the change is only a creation that way made that way for 
the comfort of the animal. 

While there are many different races of animals, they are all 
created in a climate adapted to that clime and retain their identity 
as that specie of animal and no development in the way of intellect 
on their part. The same can be said of man. If man had not 
risen to the state of perfection, it is no fault of God's, as He crea- 
ted him as perfect as could be without making him equal, and tliis 
God could not do while in the form of an animal. But when the 
animal becomes separated by death, then this is possibly evolution 

164 



THE TWENTIKTH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 65 

and will become wise as his Creator. This proves that everything^ 
created is made perfect, and man being the nature of God, when 
he allows the spiritual to control the animal, the same desire with 
man is to make as near perfect as possible. This is a proof by the 
great advancement that has been made in Christian nations to- 
ward perfection. 

All animals before their birth, as well as man, are provided with 
hair on their bodies where it will be most needed, and a tough 
skin on their hands and feet in event for what they have to do. 
This provision they have no knowledge of. If man was deprived 
of them, he would know it, and would question the wisdom of his 
Creator. This proves there is power in space which is not only 
applied to man but all creation beside. 

The invisible power is greater than the visible power. We can- 
not see the wind, but we see its effects. We cannot see electricity, 
but we can see the effects. We cannot see the heart beat, but we 
see the effects. We cannot see a thought, but we see the effects. 
If, by a thought, we can make something out of something, the 
unseen has power to create something out of nothing. 

If you do not accept this, we repudiate that there is a God. The 
more that man produces something that is good, the more he is 
like God and has the power of God to extend his use, and as man 
has power because he is a bundle of the elements that exist on the 
earth. If the elements out of the earth, such as air and water elec- 
trified by the elements, his whole being is likened unto an electric 
motor which is put in motion by the touch of a button. As no man 
has any doubt of his knowledge to know there is an element of 
electricity, no one has been able to know of its component parts. 
But we have been made to know God with our five senses, that 
there is supreme power that can produce life and never makes a 
mistake in creating animal life or vegetable. 

God had a purpose in making man to be ruler over all animals. 
There would be but little pleasure to God that He had made ani- 
mals, if he had not made man, and it afforded God the same pleas- 
ure to see man develop that it does for man to see his own off- 
spring develop. 

A child is not supposed to know its parents only as it is told. 
Neither are we to know God only as we are told. The mind of 



1 66 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

man is only the spirit, and as God is a spirit, then why should we 
not be reasonable to commune with God, as it would be as an in- 
dividual, as both must have a thought before they can act. If man 
had not been created by God, then there would be no God, as man 
is the only animal that is capable of knowing of a God, and when 
people know more of electricity they will know more of God and 
of the origin of life, as it is evident that life would be impossible. 
The more electricity that the system contains, the greater will be 
the activity and seem more like his Creator. In this way, while 
attempting to produce something to be a non-product, is of the 
animal; therefore, the distension in their creation is the reason- 
ing power. This gift alone should be sufficient to prove that there 
is a Supreme Maker who possesses reasoning power. Let those 
call it nature, or what ever name they choose ; the same privilege 
should be accorded to the power that has power to create and pro- 
duce animal life in whatever form He may choose, without follow- 
ing out any one man's theory, that man must have came into exis- 
tence through evolution from an oyster, thence to a monkey and 
then to man. 

WILL RELIGION AND POLITICS CONSISTENTLY MIX? 

In a true sense they will not, but at the present time the whole 
religious world is making the attempt to do so. 

We have in the Methodist Episcopal Church bishops who be- 
lieve the best way to advance Christ's Kingdom is by staying with 
the Republican party, thereby securing large am.ounts of money 
by being allied with the said party. They must think the same acts 
as a reciprocity, as the word is so applicable to conditions, as when 
James G. Blaine, in a manner, coined a word to suit the tariff con- 
ditions. The same principle is prompted by the Bishop being con- 
nected with the Union League, where $50,000 worth of liquors 
are sold annually, thereby money will be secured by a wealthy 
class and the churches established, and will continue to increase 
the party principle, which believes in licensing saloons, as a sample 
shown by Bishop Potter singing the Doxology in the opening of a 
saloon, and then vote with a party to continue it. 

Bishops of the Catholic Church believe in the principle of li-cens- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 67 

ing, the same as the RepubHcan party does. The CathoHc priest 
takes the money from his parishioners who have sinned, but they 
go and sin again, probably in the same manner. So with some 
Methodist Bishops who take money from the RepubHcan party, 
but the party goes on Hcensing the saloon just the same. They 
forget to follow out Christ's example who told the woman at the 
well to "go and sin no more," and who also says, "He that is not 
for Me is against Me. Come ye out from the world and be sep- 
arate." 

It appears that the whole world is a vast condition of reciproc- 
ity. It is evident to the religious world that it must come to the 
principle of the things that belong to Caesar should be rendered to 
Csesar, and the things which belong to God should be rendered 
to God. When this is done the problem will be solved as to why 
all religions are on the decline and having such a hard time to get 
people converted by such unfavorable conditions, and yet that is 
Senator Dolliver's only recipe for the evils existing to-day. Did 
not he know that the larger part of the people have nothing to 
give thanks or praise for ? They are not like the birds that warble 
their notes of praise to their Creator. Many of them come to such 
a pass that they prefer to die, rather than to live, and they commit 
suicide. Is it any wonder that a certain religious denomination 
believes in Purgatory ? Many are inclined to believe in it because 
of its need, for the greed of man is so great that there is but little 
opportunity to prepare for the next world. He is kept quite busy 
trying to prevent others from stealing what he has of this world's 
goods. 

The Scriptures tell us that God will supply all our needs, if we 
trust in Him, and I would sooner take my chance on such prom- 
ises than to rely upon those who make it their business on earth to 
get people out of Purgatory. Like one of those parishioners 
who went to his pastor to ask where his brother was, and was 
told that he was in Purgatory up to his neck ; he gave him ten dol- 
lars to get him out. He went again another month later, to know 
how his brother was, and was told that he had succeeded in getting 
him out as far as his waist ; then he gave him another ten dollars. 
The third time he went he was told that he had succeeded in get- 
ting him out to his knees ''Well, sir," he said, "I will let him jump 
out, for he could always jump farther than I could." 



l68 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

This class of worshippers are holding political offices to the num- 
ber of hundreds of thousands. They place their church before 
everything else, and take good care to work politics and religion 
so they will mix and would apparently continue to conduct 
national affairs on the same principle as they did before the Chris- 
tian religion was established. 

By this, they compel the Protestant people to give attention to 
politics first, and until the Protestant Church learns the secret how 
to protect themselves from this prevailing influence of licensing 
things that are sinful, by imitating the Roman Catholic Church, 
they both will continue to decrease, as they have for years. In- 
stead of expecting the church to bring about so much reform, let 
the reform begin at the seat of government with the Republican 
party, or let it be buried, for its usefulness in helping the common 
people. Therefore, there is need of a party to protect them who 
are the Lord's own, as there cannot be but one standard of all re- 
ligious worshippers, the same as gold is the standard for the com- 
mercial world, so the religion that Christ taught is the only 
standard. 

THE POLITICS TO MAKE THE MAN. 

It is impossible to produce such men as the nation needs with a 
party that caters to the wishes and desires of the Roman Catholic 
Church, or by a party that receives its support from that class of 
people who support a party that supports the saloon ; hence, there 
must be a new party or a new race of people. According to the 
last astronomical report we are the only planet inhabited. Whether 
this be true or not is a question, but the Creator of all the universe 
knows all things and His purpose is to make men happy, and if 
there are not other worlds inhabited. He has to decide. For this 
reason it is easily proven that the majority of men are not happy. 
If all the conditions of men were divided, life would not be worth 
the living; therefore, it would be useless to create other human 
beings on other planets without a Purgatory for those who become 
shipwrecked would need to go there to get purified, as there would 
be so much graft that it would keep the redeemed employed all the 



the; twentieth ckntury age of reason. 169 

time helping the unfortunate out, and it might be that graft is so 
deeply rooted in human nature that the same would be practiced 
there, making a charge for assistance rendered. 

Those interested in this subject will find more detailed informa- 
tion in "The Monitor," beginning with page 43. 

THE ABDUCTOR AND ABDUCTED. 

At the present time there has been another sensational occur- 
rence in the abduction of Frederick Muth, the abductor being John 
Joseph Kean, of Philadelphia. 

While there has been much cause for excitement in the natural 
order of the present day, it would make opportunities for the var- 
ious newspapers to supply the human race what they desire — some- 
thing sensational — and for seven days the same made a harvest 
for the newspapers, no doubt running into an additional million 
of copies, and as sometimes said, it is an ill wind that doesn't blow 
fair for someone. And as this abduction has occurred, why not 
make the attempt to fill the morbid curiosity of those who are 
eager to learn simply of such a peculiar mode to secure money 
other than let the important circumstances go by without an\ 
further investigation and the public receive no benefit from the 
occurrence. 

Whether this depraved act was due to heredity or whether it be 

as some would have, there must be a black sheep in every family, 

or whether it be because of environments, or whether it be due to 

the physical constitution of the cranium, thereby afifecting the 

brain, or whether it be due to the use of narcotics, either opium, 

tobacco or liquor. It has been clearly shown that he did not lack 

any ability of quickness and perception of business ability either 

in shrewdness in the case of abduction. Therefore, this incident 

made an excellent opportunity for the phrenologists, the scientist 

and the psychologist, the moralist, the reformer, as the eccentric 

acts of Kean's is an important matter of investigation of the whole 

nation is interested in making discoveries of the same. This will 

apply to the business world, the investigation that they may profit 

by their mistakes, as many daily papers reaped a harvest due to 

the same. Could they not well afford to select a committee to in- 
12 



lyo THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

vestigate the most likely thing in the abductor's life that caused 
him to do this rash act. If the various presses do not wish to bear 
all the expense of the committee, it would not be any more fair 
for the city of Philadelphia to appropriate a sum, as she seems to 
have more than her share of these characters. And if abduction 
becomes profitable to the public, they might possibly happen more 
frequently, as there are others. 

To assure the committee, I might suggest for them to first as- 
certain his habits when a youth, and if his first downward step was 
due to tobacco in some form, and then a desire for liquor. If they 
cannot do this, should they desire, let them investigate his religious 
belief, and if the same be of such, the offering of a sacrifice of 
money to some one who is supposed to have power to forgive sin, 
while here on earth, that may have had something to do with his 
committing the crime. 

If you should be unable to solve the problem, I would advise 
that you add to your committee a phrenologist, who might develop 
a new clue that the problem could be solved, thereby the animal 
propensities prove too powerful for the spiritual. If you should 
be unable to decide, I would advise you to keep the committee in- 
tact and at his death have a medical doctor to dissect the brain and 
ascertain how near it resembles that of the normal man, as de- 
signed by the Creator. And if because of the use of narcotics the 
brain had become impaired, so that ''As a man thinketh, so is he,'' 
and if the brain had been injured by the use of narcotics, naturally 
we could not expect better things to have happened. 

In reading an account of the boy's captivity regarding Kean's 
supplying the child with food and drink, which stated the boy 
liked beer, as he drank some at home. If this be true, it would 
cause one to think, supposing the same practice be continued un- 
til he becomes a man, is there much possibility of becoming a man 
similar to Kean? If not in abduction, it might in crime as bad, 
thereby verifying the Scripture : the child's acts would bring the 
father with sorrow and gray hairs to the grave. Supposing Fred. 
Muth, or some other boy should have drank from the hand of 
some saloonkeeper and had died. It is probable the daily papers 
would scarcely have made a note of the occurrence. Where would 
be the difference, in the crime or the sin of the same, if Kean had 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. I71 

doped Fred Muth with laudanum to keep him quiet and he had 
died? The principle of abduction is the same. 

They both do it for money, or suppose a boy should contract 
the habit of cigarette smoking or the use of tobacco in any form 
and by contracting the same it should cause him to contract a habit 
of intoxicating liquor, thereby the loss of life should occur, is not 
the crime in a moral sense as great as though Kean had murdered 
Fred. Muth ? As in either case they were committed for the love 
of money. 

Sin is sin, whether it is developed instantaneously or whether it 
takes five years for it to develop. It is simply a growth of cause 
and effect that prompted Kean to abduct the boy. To make the 
comparison plainer, habit is causing more crime than all other evil 
propensities of the human race. Let those who are interested make 
note of the daily occurrences of the many accidents and other as- 
saults and we would find that seven-eighths of all such is due to 
the contracting of a habit of the name narcotics. 

To inform the public to the extent they are controlling the 
American people, the writer observed on a Sunday afternoon that 
out of fifty persons passing on the street, forty-five were smoking. 
Also the writer knows of a saloon, from eight A. M. to five P. M. 
there were 1240 persons passed in and out on a Sunday. This 
statement should create an interest, and if there are those desiring 
to be better informed, they may receive much information from a 
book entitled "The Monitor," as the first chapter explains how en- 
vironments are the first downward step of boy or man. 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE REFUTED. 

The word "science" applied or connected to Christianity is where 
this profession makes a success and is the most catchy word to 
dehide those who are not in the habit of doing their own thinking, 
and let other people think for them, thereby accepting the princi- 
ples without reason, but to disabuse the thought in the mind of 
those so inclined to accept this are of divine healing first. There 
cannot be any art applied to the human system in the way of being 
healed or cured by the mind, as the art applies to mechanical and 
chemistry. Therefore, you cannot add to or take from yourself 
only what has been created within you, and if there is any benefit 
received by the practicing of the mind controlling the human sys- 
tem, thereby your physical condition is improved. It is only an 
advancement in knowledge like unto other knowledge we have 
acquired by adding knowledge to knowledge and there is and 
always will be a class of people ready to take advantage of peo- 
ple's ignorance. The possibility of their latent powers that all are 
possessed with for a money consideration, as we now have teach- 
ers and instructors of this art and science, such as Mrs. Eddy, 
Elijah Dowie and other prophets, and if one wishes to investigate 
they will see the whole principle of Christian Science has been 
prompted because there is an opportunity for someone who is 
shrewd enough to make money. Because of such, it is only nat- 
ural to the human race to seek for knowledge and to assist those 
who have taken on themselves to acquire money. This way of 
taking the name of Christ to help them in so doing is where the 
injury lies in the practice of this so-called art. It is ignorance on 
the part of those who have joined this religious order of so-called 
scientists, that the applicant desires and assents it is the common 
heritage of man, while he remains in ignorance as to what he 
should do to care for his body, and many of those who join rely 
upon divine part to cure all their ills, and in many cases where 
there has been an accident, sooner than to destroy their faith in 

172 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 1 73 

the claims, their leaders who know better that a cTiance to 
recover, as it is doubtful in adhering to the principles of Christian 
Science for fear they would lose confidence in the claims, therefore 
they will practically gamble on a person's life sooner than to em- 
ploy a physician to cure the member, thereby jeopardizing life, 
because we, as a Republican form of government, allow all such 
who make a profession of any religious creed to be allowed to 
worship according to their faith. This was the Mormons' strong 
fort, but by education and exposure of such they failed to increase. 
Their past success is due to the fact that they possess an unusual 
amount of hypnotic nature and the power to know how to main- 
tain their members by making the religion a liberal allowance, 
most any thing so they pay their tithing, thereby the Christian 
Scientists imitate the Mormons to hold their followers together 
by building a large temple, similar to the Mormon temple, which, 
in itself, is sufficient to delude many. I have only made these com- 
parisons because a certain knowledge I obtained by a few days' 
visit to Salt Lake City on my way home from the Pacific Coast. If 
one should be interested to know more regarding the Mormons the 
reader will find many interesting topics regarding this class of 
people published in a book entitled ''The Monitor," of which I am 
the author. Also an article written by Dr. Buckley, published in 
The Christian Advocate. 

To verify my sentiments that there are others of the same opin- 
ion regarding Christian Scientists, I would insert an article pub- 
lished in the Literary Digest, which speaks for itself: 

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. 

Although The American Israelite (Cincinnati) refers to the new 
Christian-Science Cathedral in Boston as "the grandest monu- 
ment erected to human gullibility that the world has ever seen," 
and The Watchman (Baptist, Boston) asserts that "among all the 
religions of the world, Christian Science stands alone as a religion 
in which the element of self-abnegation is wholly wanting," the 
tendency of the religious press as a whole, in their comment upon 
the dedication of the new cathedral, seems to be to look for the 
truth rather than for the error embodied in this young and remark- 



174 the: twentieth century age of reason. 

ably flourishing sect. The Watchman further points out that the 
uninitiated reader, to whom Mrs. Eddy's book is ''illogical, inco- 
herent, inconsistent, and obscure," finds himself entirely at a loss 
to account for the unquestionable fascination which her teachings 
exercise on a large number of people. It suggests, however, three 
factors which may contribute to the popularity of Christian 
Science. These are: ''The promise it holds out of relief from 
pain and sickness ;" "the deliverance it gives from an uneasy con- 
science ;" and the charm of "its hazy mingling of Christian terms 
with pantheistic ideas." On the other hand, The Congregational- 
ist (Boston) explains Mrs. Eddy's success by the statement that 
she persuades people "to make their venture with God." It adds : 

"Until that is accomplished, nothing really counts for much in 
the life of the would-be Christian. Her philosophy may be crude, 
her logic laughable, many of her facts no facts at all ; but at least 
she requires and secures the coming face to face of God and the 
individual human soul and a venturing of faith which finds expres- 
sion in daily life. If we had no higher thought of spiritual power 
than that of some vast and everywhere present force, ready to flow 
in where the will of man affords it an opening, the first condition 
of utilizing that force would be to open the doors of the soul to 
give it entrance — in other words, to venture upon it, as the chem- 
ist ventures upon chemical forces and the machinist upon me- 
chanical forces. And here is just the point where all the churches 
stand in constant danger from pure intellectuality or the inertia of 
fixed tradition. Joy and enthusiasm are fruits of the personal ex- 
perience which comes of venturing with God." 

The Banner of Light (Spiritual, Boston) also has more of 
praise than of criticism for Mrs. Eddy's cult. We read in part : 

"With fact, reason, and logic against their teachings, they have 
been able to objectify in spontaneous generosity, in orderly self- 
sacrifice, in well-ordered lives the very truths we hold in common, 
and in most particulars they seem to lead us all. Any teacher or 
organization that can find nothing but bad grammar, poor logic, 
poor Christianity, poor science in this movement for health, hap- 
piness, and the joy of adjusted lives, must bring forward some- 
thing more appealing to this pain-ridden world than a cold-carping 
criticism before Christian Science will find in such a worthy rival" 



I 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 75 

Even the New York Outlook protests against the dictum of The 
Times that the followers of Christian Science ''are victims of what 
the Schipture calls 'strong delusion, that they should believe a 
lie.' " To quote The Outlook: 

"What has given Christian Science its votaries is not the delu- 
sion in it, but the truth in it. The remedy for the delusion is the 
discovery of the truth, not the indiscriminate condemnation of 
both truth and error as an unadulterated lie. 

"Christian Science was born out of a materialistic age ; an age 
which regarded man as a mere mechanical machine, his diseases 
mere disorders of the machine, medicine a mere repairing of the 
machine. It was born out of a rationalistic age; an age which 
confounded dogma with faith, which refused to look at the things 
that are unseen and eternal, and endeavored to content itself with 
deducing the things that are unseen from the things that are seen ; 
w^hich condemned all mysticism and glorified the scientific method ; 
which for realization of a present immortality offered a probable 
hypothesis of a future life, and for personal fellowship, with God 
an argument from creation for a hypothetical creator. It was 
born out of a legalistic age ; an age which forgot that Christianity 
is curative and imagined it to be a mere new form of law ; which 
passed by the text 'The Son of man came to seek and to save that 
which was lost,' and declared that all Christianity is summed up in 
the two commandments, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart' and 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.^ 
Christian Science is a reaction and a protest against this trinity 
of errors. The truth in Christian Science is its threefold affirma- 
tion : First, that man is not a machine, but a living spirit, and his 
body is the servant, not the master, of the spirit; second, that 
spiritual truth is not merely mediately discoverable by a scientific 
process, but immediately and directly known by spiritual vision ; 
third, that Christianity is not merely a new^ interpretation of an 
ancient law of life, but a new power to heal, to vivify, and to en- 
dow." 

Of the errors of the sect the same publication says : 

"The errors of Christian Science appear to us as clear as the 
truths for which it stands ; and they appear to us to be fundamen- 
tal errors, which tend to produce in the church a spirit of senti- 



176 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

mentalism and effeminacy, when it preeminently needs a clear in- 
telligence and a vigorous virility. 

''Man is a spirit, and the spirit is the master, not the slave, of 
the body. But the body is real. It is not an imagination which 
the spirit has created, nor a shadow which the spirit has cast, nor 
an emanation which the spirit has produced. The notion that it 
is unreal, and that all its aches and pains are but 'mortal thoughts,' 
to be banished by thinking that God is Love, is a revival of a long- 
buried pagan or half-pagan gnosticism. This notion is sufficiently 
refuted by the fact that no Christian-Scientist with the thermom- 
eter at zero conquers the mortal thought of cold by a counteract- 
ing thought ; he warms his house like the rest of us." 

THE CRIME OF NERVES. 

This article appeared in the Camden Outlook. The same ex- 
presses my views regarding the prevention and cure of the ills of 
mankind, and if practiced, Christian Science would have no place 
as a means to a cure : 

No one is himself when his nerve centres are exhausted, whether 
from excessive use or from lack of proper food. The quality of 
one's thought, ambition, energy, aims, and ideals, is largely a mat- 
ter of health. 

Who can estimate the tragedies which have resulted from ex- 
hausted nerve cells? Many crimes are the result of abnormal 
physical conditions consequent upon exhaustion. Men do all sorts 
of strange, abnormal things to satisfy the call of these exhausted 
tissue cells for nourishment. They try to restore them by drink 
and other kinds of dissipation. 

If it were possible for the people of this country to follow the 
laws of health for six months, it would change the entire condition 
of our civilization. The unhappiness, misery and crime would be 
reduced immeasurably, and the general efficiency would increase 
marvelously. Ignorance of the laws of health is responsible for 
a large part of the ills we suffer. 

It seems strange that we should spend so much time and money 
learning about a hundred things which we shall never use practi- 
cally, but which are, of course, of great value as discipline, and 



THE TWENTIKTPI CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 77 

almost wholly neglect to find out what we are ourselves. It is 
really an insult to the Creator, who has fashioned us so marvel- 
ously, that we should not spend as much time studying the 
physique which it has taken Him a quarter of a century or more 
to bring to maturity as we would spend upon a single dead 
language which we know we shall never use except indirectly. — 
Selected. 

ROOSEVELT'S POWER TO PREVENT. 

Too many of our American citizens have an indefinite idea con- 
cerning the methods by which our government can be divorced 
from the whiskey business and drunkard making. Here is a sim- 
ple statement of what could be done in the matter of federal action 
and legislation: 

As the President of the United States has full authority con- 
cerning the regulation of the drink traffic in certain districts and 
departments of our government, he can act, if he wishes, as 
follows : 

(a) He can close every dram shop in the Philippines and other 
insular possessions, and reduce to a minimum gambling and the 
social vice now under federal protection. 

(b) He can abolish saloons from military and Indian reserva- 
tions, including national parks, soldiers' homes and all other gov- 
ernment property. 

(c) He can enforce the liquor laws of the District of Columbia 
and drive the illicit saloons from Washington. 

(d) He can demand a strict observance of the canteen law and 
enforce its every provision in all forts, arsenals and camps of the 
United States army. 

(e) He can appoint as judges and district attorneys those cit- 
izens only who by sobriety and faithfulness to their oath of office 
will enforce liquor laws and bring violators to justice. 

The Congress of the United States can divorce the government 
from legal drunkard making by the following legislation on this 
special subject: 

(a) The repeal of the internal revenue law, passed only as a 
war measure, which ( i ) Compels every American voter to become 



178 the; twentieth century age of reason. 

a shareholder in the distilleries and breweries; (2) Receives as a 
government the greater share of the profits from the manufacture 
of liquors; (3) And permits the federal authorities to issue liquor 
licenses to citizens of any State, city or town regardless of the pro- 
hibition laws therein. 

(b) By the repeal of the license law of the District of Columbia 
and thus make our national capital a city free from the legalized 
saloon. 

(c) As Congress prohibited polygamy in the territories, so it is 
possible to prohibit the drink traffic in all territories including 
Alaska, which for several years prior to 1899, when Congress re- 
pealed it, was blessed with a prohibition law. 

(d) It can prevent the interstate commerce of liquors for bev- 
erage purposes, especially for shipment into prohibition territory 
— a law generally demanded but not passed by the last Congress. 

(e) It can prevent the exportation of intoxicating liquors from 
our country and the importation of such liquors into the United 
States so far as is possible without violating any treaty obligations. 

(f) It can prohibit the manufacture of intoxicating liquors by 
individuals and introduce a change of policy providing for gov- 
ernment control and the manufacture of liquor by the government, 
its sale regulated as a poison, and to be used only for mechanical, 
scientific and medicinal purposes and in the arts and manufac- 
turers. 

ARE INTOXICATING LIQUORS AND TOBACCO A 
A DISEASE OR A LUXURY? 

If so, should it not be declared a nuisance, thereby abolishing^ 
it by law? To reason properly on this subject we should consider 
the physical part of man, as he was created, and has remained 
ever since, unless he has contracted a disease. As man was cre- 
ated perfect and all nature demands perfection, and if not inter- 
fered with will continue to remain and restore itself back to per- 
fection. This is shown in every form of creation ; it is also shown 
in every form of life, and if it does not develop into perfection, it 
is diseased. If in the vegetable, it may be diseased at the root, or 
have some blight that interferes with being supplied with sap or 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 79 

fluids it obtains from the soil, thereby the disease affects the same. 

If a person becomes inoculated with the poison of tobacco, caus- 
ing him to expectorate and throw off these fluids known as saliva,, 
which nature intended to be retained in the body to assist in di- 
gesting the food, the same will hinder nature's work of digestion, 
and he produces a blight which hinders perfection in some form, 
either mentally or physically, as the effects are sure to produce 
some deterioration on some of the organs of the body, either the 
heart, eye, stomach, kidneys or the liver, the same producing con- 
stipation by the lack of nature-fluid by exciting the saliva glands, 
thus becoming a victim to one or the other of these diseases. 
Some may say, ''How can it be a disease when it is a luxury P**" 
We might reason on this line that the deception of luxuries is that 
you do not distinguish the difference between the natural want^ 
and the forced wants, as it dictates what the subject should do, and 
if he refuses to obey there is trouble with his nervous system. 
This he calls luxury, but he is really subject to the demands of 
tobacco or intoxicating liquors. 

Those who do not desire to obey should go to the Christian 
Scientists, perhaps they might cure one of the tobacco disease by 
thinking there is no such a thing. But as science has been slow to 
discover a cure or what produces the phenomenal effect of tobacco 
which causes a man to commit an act which he would not have 
done had he not used it, I can only attribute this to that narcotics 
are unnatural, and unlike any other substance which supports the 
body, and the person that makes the attempt to test the truthful- 
ness of the Scriptures where it says that you cannot add to your- 
self one jot or tittle, we suppose the Scripture was written by in- 
spiration. Further knowing that man would defile his body, and 
sooner than to attempt a cure or abstain from it, a prophet, in his 
writing, says : ''He that is filthy, let him be filthy still." As it is 
m this day and generation, man will chew and spit and make him- 
self appear filthy to others and not to himself; and if he should 
swallow it, it would cause him to vomit or he would die from the 
effects. He will also blow smoke from his mouth and nostrils and 
call it a luxury, and imagine it makes him look dignified, and if 
his wife should contract such a disease he would likely apply for 
a divorce. When an article has become so extensively used and 



l8o THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

has not found any benefit and nothing but injury, should it not be 
declared a nuisance and let it come under the law in the Board of 
Health? Let it be tried by our courts of justice or by some mock 
trial. There could be plenty of witnesses to testify that it is a 
nuisance, and that it had been tolerated too long, and the only 
reason that either tobacco or liquor are tolerated is because of pol- 
itics and has become a great annoyance to the millions of homes. 

The enormous amount used may cause some to think it is use- 
ful and essential and should be manufactured, but it is to the con- 
trary. It only shows how man can become a slave to a thing that 
the system has no desire for and is unnatural to like either tobacco 
■or liquor any more than it would be for the various animals to de- 
sire it. If this is not so, we would crave it from our birth, and as 
we advance, age has nothing to do for the craving for such. It is 
all due to tampering with them, as there are millions who have no 
desire for them. The tobacco habit is simply a comparison to a 
beautiful herb in a garden. The mother says to the child, "Do not 
touch it, or you will get poisoned." By saying this she starts a 
desire in the child to touch the herb because he sees others going 
up and partaking of its leaves ; and the more he does it, he inocu- 
lates himself with the poison leaves, and the more he tampers with 
it the more his system becomes poisoned, and the only relief he 
^ets is temporary by resorting to the same thing that poisoned 
him. There is no difference regarding the poison, whether it be 
on the surface or internally. They both have to be attended to 
to allay their irritation. The surface poison is temporarily allayed 
l)y rubbing the injured parts ; thereby call it pleasure and apply the 
"herbs that poisoned you. The more the system becomes poisoned 
internally with it, the greater the so-called luxury, the more your 
nervous system is affected, the greater the pleasure to allay them. 

This being true, would it not be as consistent for one to eat 
green apples, that he might have a pain so he could take some med- 
icine to be relieved of it ? Thereby the relief from pain would be 
a luxury. 

Would it be a luxury when the boy or man attempts to add any- 
thing to himself whereby he may receive greater enjoyment? Is 
is not evident that he is trying to improve on his Creator? If it 
can be proven he has succeeded, then we might advise him to ac- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. l8r 

quire the use of liquor and opium, then he would succeed in arriv- 
ing to a condition of superlative happiness, but all the past history 
proves to the contrary that the more physical desires a man has 
the more dissatisfied he becomes. There is mental desire of antici- 
pation. If all were gratified they would soon prove an affliction- 
Suppose a farmer on his way home from market should give a 
person a ride, and the person should insist on him smoking a 
cigar and he contracted the habit ; would the habit make him a 
happier man by having contracted the disease, as it should be 
termed that pure and simple, as it is a blight, and he afflicted his 
body to make the demand of an unnatural intruder. Suppose, in 
the course of time, he takes in another man to ride who likes in- 
toxication. The man says, 'Xet us stop at the saloon and get re- 
freshed." He takes his first glass. He afterwards continues to 
stop every time he passes the saloon. Has not the man caught 
the saloon disease? And if he continues to supply the demands 
of the diseased stomach, which he forced upon himself by drink- 
ing of a mixture of a decayed substance, which naturally produced 
a diseased man, as all medical doctors could show a photograph 
of the anatomy of man and his stomach in the various stages of a 
diseased stomach produced by the use of intoxicating liquors. Then- 
why should man, the highest order of God's creation, defile his 
body in attempting to derive pleasure from a decayed substance,. 
as the germ has to die because man wills it should for money ? He 
makes from the poison of the still, instead of letting the miller use 
it for w^hat it was intended. Therefore, reason tells us that all de- 
cayed substances are unfit for man to take, 

God created certain birds and animals as scavengers to eat up 
decayed matter and never intended man should do it, but He did 
intend that man should enjoy the pure, unadulterated water or a 
temperance drink, such as lemonade, etc. But if you let nature's 
decay act upon the lemonade, it would also produce a disease in 
the stomach, thereby afflicting the whole body and the brain, which 
might produce the same effect upon anyone as the following 
tragedy : 

If our scientists would give more thought and attention to the 
spirit of a decayed substance entering into the body, sooner the 
problem will be solved as to how to control the human race.. 



182 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

A TERRIBLE CHARGE. 

'Trisoner at the bar, have you anything to say why sentence of 
death shall not be passed upon you?" 

A solemn hush fell over the crowded courtroom, and every per- 
son waited in almost breathless expectation for the answer to the 
Judge's question. 

The Judge waited in dignified silence. Not a whisper was 
heard anywhere, and the situation had become painfully oppressive 
when the prisoner was seen to move, his head was raised, his hand 
was clinched and the blood had rushed into his pale, careworn face. 

Suddenly he arose to his feet, and in a low, firm, but distinct 
voice, said: 

"I have ! Your honor, you have asked me a question, and I now 
ask, as the last favor on earth, that you will not interrupt my ans- 
wer until I am through. 

''I stand here, before this bar, convicted of the awful murder of 
my wife. Truthful witnesses have testified to the fact that I was 
a loafer, a drunkard and a wretch ; that I returned from one of my 
prolonged debauches and fired the fatal shot that killed the wife I 
had sworn to love, cherish and protect. While I have no remem- 
brance of committing the fearful deed, I have no right to complain 
nor to condemn the verdict of the twelve good men who have acted 
as the jury in the case, for their verdict is in accordance with the 
evidence. 

''But, may it please the Court, I wish to show that I AM NOT 
ALONE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MURDER OF MY 
WIFE!" 

This startling statement created a tremendous sensation. 

The Judge leaned over the desk, the lawyers wheeled around 
and faced the prisoner, the jurors looked at each other in amaze- 
ment, while the spectators could hardly suppress their intense ex- 
citement. The prisoner paused for a few seconds, and then con- 
tinued in the same firm, distinct voice. 

"1 repeat. Your Honor, that I am not the only one guilty of the 
murder of my wife. The Judge on this bench, the jury in the box, 
the lawyers within this bar, and most of the witnesses, including 
the pastor of the old church, are also guilty before Almighty God. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 83 

and will have to stand with me before His Judgment Throne, 
where we all shall be righteously judged. 

"If it had not been for the saloons of my town, I would never 
have become a drunkard : my wife would not have been murdered ; 
I would not have been here now, ready to be hurled into eternity. 
Had it not been for those human traps, I would have been a sober 
man, an industrious workman, a tender father and a loving hus- 
band. But to-day my home is destroyed, my wife murdered, my 
little children — God bless and care for them — cast out on the 
mercy of the world, while I am to be hung by the strong arm of 
the State. 

''God knows I tried to reform, but as long as the open saloon 
was in my pathway, my weak, diseased will-power was no match 
against the fearful consuming, agonizing appetite for liquor. 

"For one year our town was without a saloon. For one year I 
was a sober man. For one year my wife and children were happy, 
and our little home was a paradise. 

"I was one of those who signed remonstrances against reopen- 
ing the saloons of our town. One half of this jury, the prosecuting 
attorney on this case, and the Judge who sits on this bench, all 
voted for the saloons. By their votes and influence saloons were 
reopened, and have made me what I am." 

The impassioned words of the prisoner fell like coals of fire 
upon the hearts of those present, and many of the spectators and 
some of the lawyers were moved to tears. The Judge made a 
motion ag if to stop further speech, when the speaker hastily said : 

"No ! No ! Your Honor ; do not close my lips ; I am nearly 
through. 

"I began my downward career at a saloon BAR — legalized and 
protected by the voters of this town. After the saloons you al- 
lowed have made me a drunkard and a murderer, I am taken be- 
fore another BAR — the bar of justice, and now the law-power 
will take me to the place of execution and hasten my soul into 
eternity. I shall appear before another BAR, the JUDGMENT 
BAR OF GOD, and there you who have legalized the traffic will 
have to appear with me. Think you that the Great Judge will hold 
me — the poor, weak, helpless victim of your traffic — alone respon- 
sible for the murder of my wife ? Nay, I, in my drunken, frenzied, 



1 84 THi: TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 0^ REASON. 

irresponsible condition, have murdered ONE — but you have de- 
Hberately voted for the saloons which have murdered thousands, 
and they are in full operation to-day with your consent. 

"All of you know in your hearts that these words of mine are 
not the ravings of an unsound mind ; but God Almighty's truth. 

"You legalized the saloons that made me a drunkard and a mur- 
derer, and you are guilty with me, before God and man, for the 
murder of my wife. 

"Your Honor, I am done. I am now ready to receive my sen- 
tence, and be led forth to the place of execution. You will close 
by asking the Lord to have mercy upon my soul. I will close by 
asking God to open your blind eyes to your own individual respon- 
sibility, so that you will cease to give your support to this dreadful 
traffic." 

MADE BONFIRE OF TOBACCO. 

Writing of a South Jersey camp meeting, which is held at Sea- 
ville, a correspondent says : 

As I drew near it was plain that a bonfire was in preparation. 
The chief figure in the strange proceeding proved to be Rev. E. A. 
Wells, of Erma. The reverend gentleman was placing on the pile 
in alteration lots of broken boxes and plug tobacco and cigars. 

On inquiry I learned that a country merchant by the name of A. 
M. Woolston, doing business at Fishing Creek, a member and 
official of the Methodist church located there, was supplying the 
tobacco for the fire. 

It appears he had been to camp meeting and in a holiness meet- 
ing experienced new light on the question of the sale of tobacco 
and had decided to devote his present stock to the flames. I was 
told that as soon as the vision came, he wrote to his wife, who was 
keeping store while he attended camp, to nail up a sign, "No more 
tobacco sold here," and he intercepted a consignment of the of- 
fending weed, sending it back to the city. 

After a liberal supply of kerosene was poured over the lot, Mr. 
Woolston himself applied the match while Mr. Wells led the 
campers in the hymn, "The Dearest Idol of My Heart." While 
some few lovers of the weed stood by with mute mouths saying to 
themselves, "Why this waste." His wife is yet to be heard from. 



THE CIGARETTE. 

This article appeared in the May, 1906, issue of Success Magazine 

No words can tell the cigarette story so 
graphically as the pictures on these pages. I 
advise every cigarette victim to have his pho- 
tograph taken every year and put side by side 
in a frame in his room, where he can see the 
gradual, fatal deterioration in himself from 
year to year. If this does not startle him and 
bring him to his senses, no preaching will ever 
do it, for the pictures will be a sermon more 
eloquent than ever came from any pulpit. 

r leave it to others to discuss the moral side 
of cigarette smoking. I denounce it simply be- 
cause of its blighting, blasting effect upon 
one's success in life ; because it draws off the 
energy, saps the vitality and force which 
ought to be made to tell in one's career; be- 
cause it blunts the sensibilities and deadens 
the thinking faculties ; because it kills the am- 
bition and the finer instincts, and the more del- 
icate aspirations and perceptions ; because it 
destroys the ability to concentrate the mind, 
which is the secret of all achievement. 

The whole tendency of the cigarette nico- 
tine poison in the youth is to arrest develop- 
ment. It is fatal to all normal functions. It 
blights and blasts both health and morals. It not only ruins the 
faculties, but it unbalances the mind, as well. Many of the most 
pitiable cases of insanity in our asylums are cigarette fiends. It 
creates* abnormal appetites, strange, undefined longings, discon- 
tent, uneasiness, nervousness, irritability, and, in many, an almost 
irresistible inclination to crime. In fact, the moral depravity 
which follows the cigarette habit is something frightful. Lying, 

185 



1 86 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 



cheating, impurity, loss of moral courage and manhood, a com- 
plete dropping of life's standards all along the lines are its general 
results. 

Magistrate Crane, of New York City, says : "Ninety-nine out 
of every hundred boys between the ages of ten and seventeen 
years who come before me charged with crime have their fingers 

disfigured by yellow cigarette stains I am not a crank 

on this subject, I do not care to pose as a reformer, but it is my 
opinion that cigarettes will do more than liquor to ruin boys. 
When you have arraigned before you boys hopelessly deaf through 
the excessive use of cigarettes, boys who have stolen their sisters' 
earnings, boys who absolutely refuse to work, who do nothing but 
gamble and steal, you can not help seeing that there is some 
direct cause, and a great deal of this boyhood crime is, in my mind, 
easy to trace to the deadly cigarette. There is something in the 
poison of the cigarette that seems to get into the system of the boy 
and destroy all moral fiber." 

He gives the following probable 
course of a boy who begins to smoke 
cigarettes : ''First, cigarettes. Second, 
beer and liquors. Third, craps — petty 
gambling. Fourth, horse racing — gam- 
bling on a bigger scale. Fifth, larceny. 
Sixth, state prison.'' 

Not long ago a boy in New York 
robbed his mother and actually beat her 
because she would not give him money 
with which to buy cigarettes. Every 
little while we see accounts in news- 
papers all over the country of all kinds 
of petty thefts and misdemeanors which 
boys commit in order to satisfy the cig- 
arette mania. 
Another New York City magistrate says : ''Yesterday I had be- 
fore me thirty-five boy prisoners. Thirty-three of them were con- 
firmed cigarette smokers. To-day, from a reliable source, I have 
made the grewsome discovery that two of the largest cigarette 




THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 



187 



manufacturers soak their product in a weak solution of opium. 
The fact that out of thirty-five prisoners thirty-three smoked ciga- 
rettes might seem to indicate some direct connection between ciga- 
rettes and crime. And when it is announced on authority that 
most cigarettes are doped with opium, this connection is not hard 
to understand. Opium is like whisky, — it creates an increasing ap- 
petite that grows with what it feeds upon. A growing boy who 
lets tobacco and opium get a hold upon his senses is never long in 
coming under the domination of whisky, too. Tobacco is the boy's 
easiest and most direct road to whisky. When opium is added, the 
young man's chance of resisting the combined forces and escaping 
physical, mental, and moral harm is slim, indeed." 

Young men of great natural ability, everywhere, some of them 
in high positions, are constantly losing their grip, deteriorating, 
dropping back, losing their ambition, their push, their stamina, 
and their energy, because of its deadly hold upon them. If there 
is anything a young man should guard as divinely sacred, it is his 
ability to think clearly, forcefully, logically. 

NICOTINE IN THE FROG. 



Dr. J. J. Kellogg says : "A few months ago I had all the nico- 
tine removed from a cigarette, making a solution of it. I injected 
half the quantity into a frog, with 
the effect that the frog died almost 
instantly. The rest was adminis- 
tered to another frog with like ef- -,^_» 
feet. Both frogs were full grown, i^^ -.. m:^w^^\ 
and of average size. The conclus- 
ion is evident that a single cigarette 
contains poison enough to kill two 
frogs. A boy who smokes twenty 
cigarettes a day has inhaled enough 
poison to kill forty frogs. Why does 
the poison not kill the boy ? It does 
kill him. If not immediatelv, he will 




lSS the twentieth century age 01^ REASON. 





die sooner or later of weak heart, Bright's disease, or some other 
malady which scientific physicians everywhere now recognize as 
a natural result of chronic nicotine poisoning.'' 

A chemist, not long ago, took the tobacco used in an average 
cigarette and soaked it in several teaspoonfuls of water and then 
injected a portion of it under the skin of a cat. The cat almost 
immediately went into convulsions, and died in fifteen minutes. 
Dogs have been killed with a single drop of nicotine. 

KILLED BOTH. 

A young man died in a Minnesota state institution not long ago, 
who, five years before, had been one of the most promising young 
physicians of the West. "Still under thirty years at the time of 
his commitment to the institution," says the newspaper account of 
his story, "he had already made three discoveries in nervous dis- 
eases that had made him looked up to in his profession. But he 
smoked cigarettes, — smoked incessantly. For a long time the ef- 
fects of the habit were not apparent on him. In fact, it was not 
until a patient died on the operating table under his hands, and 
the young doctor went to pieces, that it became known that he was 
a victim of the paper pipes. But then he had gone too far. He 
was a wreck in mind as well as in body, and he ended his days in 
a maniac's cell." 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 1 89 

UNIVERSITY RECORDS. 

Anything which impairs one's success capital, which cuts down 
his achievement and makes him a possible failure when he might 
have been a grand success, is a crime against himself. Anything 
which benumbs the senses, deadens the sensibilities, dulls the men- 
tal faculties, and takes the edge off one's, ability, is a deadly enemy, 
and there is nothing else which effects all this so quickly as the 
cigarette. It is said that within the past fifty years not a student 
at Harvard University who used tobacco has been graduated at 
the head of his class, although, on the average, five out of six use 
tobacco. 

An investigation of all the students who entered Yale Uni- 
versity during nine years shows that the cigarette smokers were 
the inferiors, both in weight and 
lung capacity, of the non-smokers, 
although they averaged fifteen 
months older. 

Dr. Fiske, of the Northern Acad- 
emy, has asked all pupils who will 
not give up cigarettes to leave the 
academy. In one year, not one of 
the boys who used cigarettes stood 
in the front rank of scholarship. 

''This is our experience in teach- 
ing more than fifty thousand young 
people," says the principal of a 
great business college. "Cigarettes 

bring shattered nerves, stunted growth, and general physical and 
mental degeneration. We refuse to receive users of tobacco in 
our institution." 

Cigarette smoking is no longer simply a moral question. The 
great business world has taken it up as a deadly enemy of advance- 
ment, of achievement. Leading business firms all over the coun- 
try have put the cigarette on the prohibited list. In Detroit alone, 
sixty-nine merchants have agreed not to employ the cigarette user. 
In Chicago, Montgomery Ward and Company, Hibbard, Spen- 
cer, and Bartlett, and some of the other large concerns have pro- 




igo THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

hibited cigarette smoking among all employees under eighteen 
years of age. Marshall Field and Company, and the Morgan and 
Wright Tire Company have this rule : "No cigarettes can be 
smoked by our employees." One of the questions on the applica- 
tion blanks at Wanamaker's reads : "Do you use tobacco or ciga- 
rettes?" 

HE IS NOT WANTED. 

The superintendent of the Lin- 
dell Street Railway, of St. Louis, 
says: "Under no circumstances 
will I have a man who smokes ciga- 
rettes. He is as dangerous on the 
front of a motor as a man who 
drinks. In fact, he is more danger- 
ous ; his nerves are apt to give way 
at any moment. If I find a car 
running badly, I immediately begin 
to investigate to find if the man 
smokes cigarettes. Nine times out 
of ten he does, and then he goes, for 
good." 

E. H. Harriman, the head of the 
Union Pacific Railroad system, 
says that they "might as well go to 
a lunatic asylum for their em- 
ployees as to hire cigarette smok- 
ers." 

The New York, New Haven and 
Hartford, the Chicago, Rock Isl- 
and, and Pacific, the Lehigh Valley, 
the Burlington, and many others of 
the leading railroad companies of 

this country have issued orders positively forbidding the use of 

cigarettes by employees while on duty. 

If there is anything the youth should regard as sacred and 

should preserve intact at all hazards, as it affects his future more 

than anything else, it is his will power, and this is affected very 




THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 191 

early in the cigarette smoker, so that he finds himself a slave of a 
practice which was once absolutely within his own volition. 

KILLS THE POWER OE DECISION. 

Another of the deadly influences of cigarette smoking is the 
gradual killing of the power of decision. The victim begins to 
vacillate, to waver, and to ask everybody's advice. He can not 
make up his mind about anything. He loses the power to say 
"No." 

The symptoms of a cigarette victim resemble those of an opium 
eater. A gradual deadening, benumbing influence creeps all 
through the mental and moral faculties ; the standards all drop to 
a lower level ; the whole average of life is cut down, the victim 
loses that power of mental grasp, the grip of mind which he once 
had. In place of his former energy and vim and push, he is more 
and more inclined to take things easy and to slide along the line 
of the least resistance. He becomes less and less progressive. He 
dreams 'more and acts less. Hard work becomes more and more 
irksome and repulsive, until work seems drudgery to him. 

Cigarette smoking early impairs the digestive organs. It causes 
a gradual loss of appetite, and the wretched victim substitutes 
more cigarettes for food. In fact, he finally gets to a point where 
he becomes such a slave to the cigarette that he can not do with- 
out it. 

Herein lies one of the greatest dangers of the cigarette. It cre- 
ates a longing which it can not satisfy. Victims who have smoked 
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty cigarettes a day say 
that, while the smoking gives some temporary satisfaction, it 
creates a perpetual dissatisfaction, in that it never appeases the 
additional hunger it creates ; hence the longing for other stimu- 
lants that will do what the cigarette promised but can not fulfil. 

A physician in charge of a large sanitarium in the West says 
that three-fifths of all the men who came to the institution within 
a year, to be cured of the opium, morphine, or cocaine habit, have 
been cigarette smokers, and that sixty per cent, of these pleaded, as 
their only excuse, the need of a stronger stimulant than the ciga- 
rette. 



192 THE TWE:NTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

Excessive cigarette smoking increases the heart's action very 
materially, in some instances twenty-five or thirty beats a minute. 
Think of the enormous amount of extra work forced upon this del- 
icate organ every twenty-four hours ! The pulsations are not only 
greatly increased, but, also, very materially weakened, so that the 
blood is not forced to every part of the system, and hence the tis- 
sues are not nourished as they would be by means of fewer but 
stronger, more vigorous pulsations. 

TOBACCO HEREDITY. 

BY JAMES B. DUNN, D. D. 

It is saddening to see men of strength and intellect so bound by 
the fascinations of tobacco that at all costs they continue to allow 
themselves to be degraded by its use. But the saddest of all things 
in respect to the Smoke-god is the fact that large numbers of 
young children are among its victims. In the dark ages men used 
to worship a god called Moloch, the god of fire, and they thought 
he was pleased when they made a huge image of hollow brass in 
the shape of a man, and filling this with little children, lighted 
fires underneath and around it until it was red hot. The thought 
of such horrible deeds makes us very sorry for the ignorance of 
those people, but what shall we say to the fact that in this enligh- 
tened age men of wisdom and knowledge bow down, so to speak, 
to an idol whose worship brings sorrow, disease and death to 
thousands of boys and girls? 

Few smokers have any idea how much their habits afifect the 
constitutions of their children. 

A leading physician of one of our largest cities, in speaking of 
those who had indulged in the use of tobacco for years with seem- 
ing impunity, adds : ''But I have never known an habitual tobac- 
co-user whose children, born after he had long used it, did not 
have deranged nervous systems and sometimes weak minds. Shat- 
tered nervous systems for generations to come may be the result 
of this indulgence." 

A doctor found among the patients at a hospital a young man 
suffering from tobacco symptoms. "What will you say to this 
case?" inquired a medical friend: the youth has never chewed, 



the: twkntikth century age of reason. 193 

smoked or taken snuff." "His father did it for him," repUed the 
■doctor. Turning to the father the question was asked, "How long 
liave ybu smoked?" "These five-and-twenty years." "Have you 
ever smoked an ounce of tobacco a day ?" "Yes, many times." 

Medical journals report the poisoning of babes from sharmg 
the bed of a father who was an habitual smoker, and even from 
being in the room where he smoked. Dr. Trail says : "Many an in- 
fant has been killed outright in its cradle by the tobacco smoke 
with which a thoughtless father filled an unventilated room." 

Nothing strange in this, seeing how many physicians regard 
much of the invalidism, and also the positive ill health of women, 
as due to the poisoned atmosphere created around them by smok- 
ing members of their household. 

A French journal reports the case of a farmer, who, with two 
companions, smoked one evening in a chamber where a young 
man was asleep. When, at midnight, the visitors withdrew, the 
farmer found the youth insensible. A doctor was summoned, but 
all efforts for his restoration were fruitless. At the post mortem 
it was pronounced that he had died of congestion of the brain, 
caused by the respiration of tobacco smoke during sleep. 

It is claimed by some doctors that the effects of tobacco on pos- 
terity are even greater than those of alcohol ; that it destroys more 
vital force, and thus saps the very foundation, transmitting a ten- 
dency to disease. Sometimes the dreadful appetite itself is en- 
tailed upon the child. 

Dr. Hall says: "The parent whose blood and secretions are 
saturated with tobacco, and whose brain and nervous system are 
narcotized by it, must transmit to his child elements of a distem- 
pered body and erratic mind; a deranged condition of organic ' 
atoms, which elevates the animalism of future being at the ex- 
pense of the moral and intellectual nature." "This is a sin," says 
Dr. Brodies, ''which affects the third and fourth generation." 

Away back in the sixteenth century the Sultan Amarath in- 
flicted severe punishment on those who used tobacco, from its 
known effects in deteriorating and depleting the population. "I 
can point you," says a physician, "to two families right under my 
eye, where in each case there is a nest of little children rendered 
idiots by the tobacco habits of their parents." Dr. Cowan says: 



194 the: twentieth century age of reason. 

'*Cf all the harm done by the use of tobacco, the greatest harm 
and the mightiest wrong is that of transmitting to the unborn the 
appetite for the filthy, disease-creating, misery-engendering drug." 

- TOBACCO SMOKING. 

I believe it is almost impossible to induce a confirmed smoker to 
give up the habit, and I speak in this respect from personal exper- 
ience. I myself in early life was not a smoker. I went through 
all the arduous work of a medical student by being present at op- 
erations in large hospitals, in studying anatomy, in the dissecting 
and post-mortem rooms, and in the fever hospitals, and I never 
smoked, though I went through my work with great facility. Later 
on I learned to smoke, and continued to do so for many years. The 
whole of that time I was dyspeptic from smoking. I at length re- 
solved to give it up. It was hard work to do so, but I eventually 
succeeded, and I have never been more thankful than for the day 
it was accomplished. I gave up wine, beer and every other alco- 
holic drink with infinitely less trouble than smoking. It is very 
difficult indeed to abandon this pernicious habit of smoking. In- 
veterate smokers are those who commence to smoke early in life. 
Smoking is, to a certain extent, connected with drinking. Persons 
who smoke experience a faintness, followed by a nausea, which 
alcoholic drinks often allay. On this point I can speak from per- 
sonal experience. I should have been led into the fields of total 
abstinence five years before I was had it not been for the smoking 
habit I had contracted. Whatever we may say about the effects 
of tobacco smoking in adults, there can be no doubt as to its effects 
on the young. In them it always produces a state of functional 
disease which is unquestionable, and of serious character. It stops 
the proper working of the digestive powers. If it were a fact that 
all our young men and young women were to smoke, and contin- 
ued the habit until they were fathers and mothers, their offspring 
would be so stunted and little as to be thoroughly incapable of car- 
rying out the duties required by our generation. We cannot praise 
our mothers too much for the fact that they have not become smok- 
ers.— The late Sir B. W. Richardson, M. D., F. R. S. 



THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE WOMAN. 

THE YOUNG WOMAN OF TO-DAY. 

What the young woman needs, while there is much being said 
and done for the young man, at the present time, there seems to- 
be a lack of interest in the young woman. The cause of this prob- 
ably is for the want of proper information regarding the things 
which should be done for the present as well as the coming gen- 
erations. 

We are all aware that there is much at stake with the women 
of to-day, who shall measure her usefulness and influence to the 
millions of homes of our nation. And shall it not be, as it has 
been and now is, in the years to come? To prepare the young 
women that they may be better fitted to perform their duties as 
mothers, we should first look after the development of the body 
while at home and in the schools. The women of the generations 
to come need to be stronger and capable of more endurance. She 
should also be equipped with knowledge as to how to make home 
more attractive and restful, that all may be happy therein. 

The thing needed to produce such conditions is the establish- 
ment of more Young Women's Christian Associations. They 
ought to be as fully equipped with all the up-to-date appliances 
as are the Young Men's Christian Associations. For instance, the 
gymnasium, the shower bath, the swimming pool, horizontal bars, 
swinging weights, dumb bells, Indian clubs, etc. 

While these advantages are very helpful along physical Hnes, 
they are not the only advantages that the young woman should 
have, for she would be trained intellectually by taking the different 
courses of the reading rooms, library, which should not be ne- 
glected. 

Not only should they be well trained and developed along physi- 
cal and intellectual lines, but also the social side of their lives 
should be well developed. Their intermingling with each other,, 
the passing of a pleasant word, the exchange of literature and dif- 

195 



196 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

ferent thoughts would all tend to brighten the social side of their 
lives and, on the whole, they, by having the same advantages as 
the young men of to-day have in this line, would be of as great 
assistance in all lines as the young men are. 

A great many people believe that the Young Men's Christian 
Association is of the greater importance, but to my mind it is 
equally as important that we have a Young Woman's Christian 
Association for every one of the young men's. A great many 
young women of to-day, because of their position in life, are de- 
prived of a chance to develop themselves along the lines above 
.spoken of. If they could have the same advantages they would more 
than likely outclass the young men. If this condition of affairs 
could be brought about, it would result in eliminating a large per 
cent, of the young men taking advantage of the opportunities that 
present themselves through the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tions throughout our country. The young lady who is well de- 
veloped, naturally looks at the physique of a young man who de- 
sires to call on her, to see if he is equally well developed himself, 
for it goes without saying that we are always appreciative of the 
noble and beautiful. 

In ancient history we read that Greece paid particular attention 
to the physical development of their young women. Why should 
not we, as Americans, in this advanced age, pay more attention to 
the development of our young women? 

We, none of us, question the fact that a good strong body is 
more capable of possessing a good strong mind such as more 
readily acquires an intellectual fitting for the needs of the day. 

The need of such a place in these days needs no further discus- 
sion. I feel confident that there is not any other place so well 
adapted for the development of young women as the institution 
here proposed, equipped with good books and other reading matter 
the reading of which would tend to develop the mind to a higher 
and nobler capacity with a relish for a better class of literature than 
is scattered broadcast in the country to-day. By the absorption of 
such knowledge, she would be in a much better position, mentally, 
to make a home more desirable to herself and family. Knowledge 
acquired along this line often prevents the little happenings in the 
home from becoming great things and possibly disrupting the 
home. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 1 97 

While the diffusion of knowledge on other subjects is very es- 
sential, there is none more important than a practical knowledge 
of housekeeping. Often, for want of knowledge in this depart- 
ment, which is often little thought of by mothers, troubles arise 
that become serious. 

How often men speak, thoughtlessly perhaps, but seriously, 
when they say ''My wife don't know how to prepare food for the 
table." There is an old maxim that is ever patent, "That the best 
way to reach a man's heart is through his throat." I am seriously 
impresed regarding the usefulness of such instructions as are here 
recommended. Would it might reach all those who, according to^ 
the old truism, hold *'The hand that rocks the cradle and controls 
the world." 

THE PRESENT AND EUTURE WOMAN. 

{Copied from Ralston Book). 

Woman, not as she is, but as she was intended to be, possesses 
the ultimate power, through her temperament and native charac- 
ter, of laying the foundation of a new race. To her, and not i<y 
man, the world must look for every moral advance, for every ethi- 
cal achievement, and for the development of that sentiment which 
executes wholesome edicts. Through the lines of history woman's 
hand can be traced in every revolution. Men have always admit- 
ted this. Man sits to-day upon the throne of physical prowess,, 
but the power behind the throne is the part of true womanhood. 

Here as some facts, so well-known that no one disputes them : 

1. Man's reasoning faculty makes him a creature of policy. As 
a lav/maker, he deals in compromise and policy. Herein his reas- 
oning faculty makes him a failure. As a maker of laws he does 
not know the value of justice. 

2. Women, as a sex, do not compromise on questions of right 
and wrong ; men as a sex, do. Women as a sex, do not tamper 
with politics ; men do. 

3'. Women as a sex, do not smoke ; men as a sex, do. As a con- 
sequence, there are no laws forbidding the thrusting of a filthy 
habit into all places and under almost all circumstances. 



198 THE TWENTrETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

4. Women, as a sex, do not chew tobacco ; men do. As a con- 
:sequence, there are no laws forbidding the vohiminous expectora- 
tions of dirty saHva on the sidewalks, floors, steps, corridors and 
other available places, where decent people have to travel or desire 
to go. 

5. Women, as a sex, do not get drunk ; men as a sex, do. There 
are exceptions in both cases and in all cases. But the supremacy 
of man's reasoning faculties expressed in private, in public and 
almost generally in the press, tell the world that those women who 
uphold the cleanly doctrine of temperance are cranks, visionary 
and thin-brained. Women, as a sex, are overwhelmingly in favor 
of purity on this question ; but man's habits, endorsed by his reas- 
oning faculties, place the stamp of ridicule on purity and cleanli- 
ness of body and openly uphold the sensualism, of the bar-room 
and the status of the hog. In consequence, there are few executed 
laws on this subject. 

6. Women, as a sex do not gamble ; men as a sex, do. There is 
more gambling going on in the United States than the public 
dream of. The husbands who are ''above suspicion" are often de- 
votees of the vice in some sort. The spirit of gambling now firmly 
planted through inheritance, is breaking out openly in the horse 
racing all over the country ; and it is fostered by the concentrated 
reasoning faculties of journalists, reporters and editors who see 
to it that this epidemic of vice is encouraged in the daily, weekly 
and Sunday press. In consequence, there are no laws to protect 
the young men and boys now growing up. 

7. Women, as a sex, do not use profane language ; men as a 
sex, do. 

8. Women, as a sex, are not publishers of criminal literature ; 
men as a sex are. Not only is the press, the sensational criminal 
press, in charge of men, but there are millions of criminal books 
sent out all over the land every year by men. In spite of laws in 
abundance, man's reasoning faculties are so keen that policy for- 
l^ids his execution of those laws. 

9. W^oman as a sex, are not sarcastic and acid-minded on the 
noble themes of the age ; men are. For every good motive or 
movement the majority of men have only sarcasm, scoffs and ridi- 
cule. This is clearly the working of their mental faculties, for 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 1 99 

that higher knowledge, known as intuition, never thinks sarcasm, 
never invents ridicule, and cannot scoff at a good motive. 

II, A high status of the race is not possible as long as man hon- 
estly believes that gross and vicious licentiousness is freedom, and 
that reformers are cranks. The only conclusion is, that a new race 
must be moulded by the heart of woman, cultivated by the mind 
of woman and trained at the knee of woman. Man ridicules all 
reform ; invents epithets for reformers, and proves to all history 
that the chief power of his acute mental faculties is an ability to 
twist words and phrases out of their true meaning, draw false con- 
clusions, and cast a veil of suspicion over every good deed. 

WOMAN AND HER GUIDING INFLUENCE. 

While we do not have much Bible history regarding the women 
of the past ages, what has been written is sufficient to convince 
this generation of their usefulness as a factor in bringing things to 
pass. 

The governments under which they lived were either saved 
from the hands of the enemy or conditions much improved bv 
their influence. For instance, we might refer to Queen Esther 
or Deborah, who led the host and destroyed the wicked King. 

The enemies of good government have more to fear from the 
influence and power of the women of to-day than any other in- 
fluence that can be brought about by man. 

The first we know of woman in the Bible is when our Creator 
took a rib from man and made woman. This we should accept be- 
cause it is proven by the natural affiliations that they have the one 
for the other and it is only in harmony with the natural law. But 
without going into the philosophy as to why He should choose 
such a way to produce a woman, we know of no better reason than 
to show the coming generations that woman should be equal to 
man, and should go side by side with him in all important matters. 

The main reason proves to us that God could not have selected 
any other part of man more appropriate to signify that the one 
should be a help-meet to the other than that which He did. By so 
doing He was relieved of taking a portion of man's brains to 
make the woman, thereby avoiding a division of more important 



200 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

members, as the brain of a person in reality is all that is worth 
considering. 

Up to the present time scientists have failed to show us that 
there is any difference between the brain substance in man or 
woman. In some cases, however, it has been shown that a man 
possesses more brains than a woman, but the woman's brains are 
of a finer quality. This makes her the equal of man and in the 
wisdom of God we can see no reason why woman should not have 
been made equal. If anything, she should possess more brains 
in consideration of what she has to do, lest we men in our haste 
to do some great thing, might overlook the many duties that are 
expected of her. 

But without going into details, let those interested recall those 
duties. In passing I might mention a few of the important ones : 

She is expected to run the finances of the house, usually on a 
limited allowance. To serve all meals on schedule time. To get 
the children off to school on time and see that they know their les- 
sons. To see that they are clothed and cared for properly. And, 
at the same time, not neglect the many wants of the husband. 

This she feels a very important duty. The tact and skill re- 
quired to mee-t all the demands of her children and husband would 
surely take the brains of a wise statesman. 

Besides the many other home duties, she is also expected .to 
look after the needs of the church, also to assist in raising money 
to educate the heathen, and many other church duties= At the 
same time she is expected to look after those things pertaining to 
city government, for fear that by some corrupt methods there will 
be some laws passed or privileges granted that will lead her son 
or husband into temptation, thereby the happiness of her home 
will be in jeopardy. 

While it is in the order of all creation that the male is supposed 
to be stronger physically, there might be some questions regard- 
ing the same, all things being equal. For instance, we could cite 
many cases where the bread-winner has been taken away and the 
woman has proven herself equal to the emergency, in caring for 
the family or in conducting his business. 

As I have said, the brain is the most important member of the 
body, otherwise there would not be so much attention paid to the 



THE TWENTIETPI CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 20I 

education of the present generation. Woman seems to be possessed 
of intuition regarding this particular subject. Any student of his- 
tory who has become noted for his intellectual ability as a leader of 
men, in a large measure will attribute his first impressions due to 
his mother. We might cite the mother of John and Charles Wes- 
ley, to whom we no doubt own our Methodism, and the perpetu- 
ation of the church on account of her influence. 

There is so much polic}' with the men contrary to the principles 
on w^hich the church was organized. It is a noteworthy fact that 
the number of male members are so comparatively few to the 
women, and if not for her influence the church would be shorn of 
its power, due to man's social nature and owing to the contraction 
of the narcotic habit. He seeks to make environments to encour- 
age those habits, thereby woman's influence is comparatively lost 
because she has no voice in the government, because of man allow- 
ing his obligations to man to supersede those of the church or his 
wife, hence he becomes a successful leader of men. 

This failure to co-operate with women is the reason his life's 
history is filled with so many blanks. When in the order of divine 
wisdom God calls him hence, the mothers of the nation keep at- 
tempting to mold their sons to a higher purpose, but all their in- 
fluences are apparently lost in the political vortex. 

It seems to be man's sphere to lead men up to a condition ap- 
parently for politics. With the woman it is very different. She 
combines her political ideas in a practical way and applies them 
in her own home on the principle of self-preservation, it being the 
first law of nature. On the other hand, man will knowingly make 
certain conditions that produce certain results in the government 
of the hirnian race, and those who have sons of their own, will 
support a political party whose methods are practiced in making 
environments, when he knows that thousands of other mothers' 
sons become castaways and are a menace to the happiness of 
home. And yet the man will gamble or take a chance of his owfi 
son becoming as others. This line of action a woman would not 
be guilty of. 

This is where the mother's love predominates over politics ; no 
chancing for her. Here is the great difficulty in producing re- 
sults. The mother that sees her boy becoming poisoned by some 



202 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

of the poison herbs that grow in the garden will go and pull it up, 
even though she knew^ she would inocculate herself with the 
poison, for fear her other son would get poisoned. The father 
would say, "Let it alone, it only helps to ornament the garden." 

Because of such ways of securing things that are a menace to 
the home a woman should have the right of franchise on questions 
that pertain to the government and comfort of the home, such as 
the prohibiting of the growing and selling of tobacco for commer- 
cial use and the manufacturing of intoxicating liquors. I believe 
that all women who own property should be allowed to vote in the 
government of public schools. 

Whether the franchise to women in all states and national 
affairs would be beneficial is debatable, but regarding the social 
customs there can be no doubt of its salutary effect. 

It is very evident in all other spheres and vocations of life, the 
more that woman is made equal to man, the more a nation pros- 
pers. As an instance of this, we might cite our own mother coun- 
try, which was ruled by a Queen, while America is under Repub- 
lican rule, and may be in time the cause of her downfall by not 
adhering to the principles of our mother country, in not giving 
power to women. 

But whatever the public may believe regarding their franchises, 
it is very evident that women will be compelled to do greater work 
and in a different line before they can ever induce the legislative 
body to grant them the privileges of franchise. Because of the 
selfishness of the majority of men they will always overbalance 
the many who would do otherwise, and while men are surrounded 
by such social influences as they have at the present time, that de- 
stroy the principles of a more noble purpose of the human race, 
we may hope for siothing better. Under the present political sys- 
tem, man seems to practice policy before principle. 

The past history of woman's condition has been very discour- 
aging. At present there is much advancement being made be- 
cause of their banding themselves together. Believing the future 
will be marked with much greater advancement, as their knowl- 
edge has come by experience, that when man's condition is made 
better, hers will be in proportion, and by delivering man from the 
slave of appetite, she will rise in proportion, thereby all mankind 
will be permitted to enjoy all the happiness that was intended they 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 203 

should by his Creator through the displacement of evil custom^ 
as in accordance with the Scripture, ''The sword shall be beaten 
into a plowshare and the spear into a pruning-hook." 

Because of their past knowledge, the fulfilment of the Scripture 
is to be verified, possibly in the twentieth century. Woman com- 
mands a subtle power and can work a mighty evolution. lu is a 
true saying that "She who rocks the cradle rules the world," and 
if she only had the co-operation of the sterner sex, which she 
ought to have, this world would be far better and a happier place 
to live in. 

Some may say, "What have the women done in these days?" 
It might be of interest to know what they have done and are doing 
in the way of reform, not so much along the line of reforming 
drunkards, as experience has taught them that they are being 
manufactured faster than they can reform them. Therefore, they 
are attempting to prevent an encroachment upon the inherent 
right, as said in our Constitution, "All men are born free and 
equal." The first public act to protect themselves was demonstra- 
ted in the year 1873, when they banded together in a crusade 
against the saloon at Hillsboro, Ohio, which was led by Eliza J. 
Thompson. 

The beginning of reform was the organization of the W. C. 
T. U. in August, 1873, and was a more practical way than offer- 
ing up prayers, as some one said, "Prayers without works are 
void." Therefore, the organization of the W. C. T. U. was im- 
portant to accomplish what they so much desired, and in all past 
history, when the human race becomes in extreme conditions, God 
always sends some one to lead them. This we should all accept, 
and Frances Willard was the chosen one whose name will go 
down in history as did those of the Bible times, who worked and 
strived for the good of the people, and by the banding together 
might show more fully the purpose of Mrs. Downs' utterances, 
when she was president of the W. C. T. U. of New Jersey. 

The liquor traffic must be outlawed. Blessed is he that helps. 
This sentiment has continued to grow until they number 250,000 
in the United States, and have extended their work in and among 
every nation of the earth, and it can be said tiiat they have circled 
the earth as though it was a band of the white ribbon army. 

The national president of this organization at the present time 



204 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE O? REASON. 

is Mrs. Stevens ; her secretary, Emma Gordon. Among the many 
present workers are Mrs. Emma Borne, president of New Jersey ; 
Mrs. C. B. Buell, of New York; Mrs. Anna Shaw, Mrs. Belle 
Caney, Mrs. Hamer, Mrs. Graham. Mrs. May Hunt, who has 
recently died, was the author of the temperance book which nearly 
every state has adopted as the best on scientific temperance instruc- 
tion, the same to be taught in all schools. This one work alone 
has been worth many millions of dollars to the nation in the way 
of educating the present and future generations. The persistency 
which they have shown in all legislative work has made its mark 
in politics, and through Mrs. Ellis' efforts there has been much 
accomplished. No doubt, through her and the co-operation of 
women and with men who were opposed to the canteen it was 
abolished from the army. 

The temperance literature which has been distributed has been a 
great factor in helping to educate the people to abstain ; also 
the press has been one of the greatest mediums to educate the 
people, and at the present time there are many reform papers be- 
ing published by women, and owing to their unrelentless persever- 
ence and indomitable will to prevent any further political corrup- 
tion, they are accomplishing a great work. For fear of exposure 
by the press, which often have more to do regarding the doings 
of men in politics than the fear of the law, because of the co-opera- 
tion of the women for one purpose. It gives inspiration to each 
other, thereby they resolve to do greater work. By this union 
they have done more to mold public sentiment in favor of the 
cause they represent, in the short time they have existed, than all 
other agencies in the past history of the human race. 

While the present condition of the liquor traffic may not war- 
rant the saying, but the condition has brought forth the emer- 
gency, thereby there never has been in the world's history when 
woman has shown such intellectual ability and oratory equal to 
any of our noted statesmen, and all their appeals and the writings 
to the public have been stored up in the minds, and the same will 
be crystalized and perpetuated until their purpose for which they 
organized will be accomplished by abolishment of the licensing of 
the liquor traffic and the sale of intoxicating liquor as a beverage. 
This will be in accordance with the saying of Harriet Beecher 
Stowe, wherl she said, ''What ought to happen must happen." 



THINGS OF INTEREST TO US ALL. 



SHOULD NOT THE CURFEW LAW BECOME GENERAL? 

The Curfew law is a very important factor, but a very much 
neglected one. If every city in the United States had a law to 
prevent the children from running out on the streets, after certain 
hours, and it was properly enforced, it would be a great help in 
helping the children to become good citizens. Allow me to men- 
tion a few reasons why it would be for the children's good, and 
also a benefit to the parents. 

We all know that the child, up to the age of 14 and older, is 
very susceptible to impressions ; and owing to the nature of the 
human race and the propensities of the animal nature, the child 
is sure to receive bad impressions. These impressions are put info 
action and secret vices are sure to be developed, whenever oppor- 
tunity presents itself. We can all recall some bad impressions that 
were received by our association with an older person ; and to the 
one you received the impression from it had been transmitted. 
The greatest danger is with young girls on the street ; their asso- 
ciation leads to familiarity in person and conversation, such as is 
sure to become detrimental to true manhood and womanhood, be- 
cause of the natural tendency to evil. 

Opportunities are given and the lack of reason and discretion 
lead to many things that are ruinous to character when children 
are allowed on the street. It is natural for children, very early in 
life, to have affection for each other, and if you sow a thought, 
you will reap an act ; sow an act, you will reap a habit ; sow a habit, 
you will reap a character ; sow a character, you will reap a destiny. 

Because of the peculiarity of human nature in many ways 
association on the street only affords a place for the development 
of that propensity to exercise its functions, which is sure to be 
more prominently developed in the child by association. Too often 

205 



206 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

have thousands learned too late the sorrow of making opportuni- 
ties for sex to become associated familiarly with each other, be- 
cause of the natural fondness of children. Parents make a great 
mistake in not explaining the physical conditions and the damages 
of familiarity and the power of love. It is a common expression, 
yet patent, that to be forwarned is to be forearmed ; hence, precau- 
tion on the part of parents would often save them from much 
trouble. Then, if their children do wrong and evil overtakes them, 
they would have the consolation of having done their duty, and 
the awful sense of regret that fills the consciousness when we fail 
to do what we should have done at the right time, will not haunt 
them. Self-condemnation is the worst kind of worriment. 

It is very evident that there could be a large amount of trouble 
avoided if the parents would forearm themselves with knowledge 
of how to instruct and talk properly with their children. By the 
acquiring of proper knowledge you may produce happiness, and 
where happiness exists, trouble is dispelled, like cold is expelled 
by heat. In passing, I would say, if any person or parent is desir- 
ous of securing proper information regarding the question as to 
how the physical body may be cared for, let them procure and 
read Dr. Gleason's work, ''Be Your Own Physician, or How to 
Acquire and Preserve Health." 

The parent will also be helped by referring to the pages of this 
book, in guarding the eye and the brain, so that the right kind of 
embrasures on the brain may help the child to preserve health 
and escape personal injury, which often is worse than though the 
child had been crippled in its limbs. There is a common saying 
that those who never had any children are the ones that know best 
how to bring them up. This cannot be said of the author. I can 
only say in the bringing up of children, there are few families that 
have had more experience that myself, and as knowledge comes 
by experience, I feel assured that my experience has not gone for 
naught and feel it incumbent on my part to instruct and advise 
others that they may avoid trouble to themselves and thereby nat- 
urally secure happiness for their children. It is evident, if par- 
ents are happy and well pleased, it is because their children please 
them. Therefore, it is natural for this to increase as they advance 
in years. It often happens that when the children mingle with 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 207 

the business world, they are of more trouble to the parents than 
when they were in the cradle, and for this reason it is very im- 
portant that the child should have a right start. This can only be 
done by the principle of the Curfew law. If not enforced at home, 
so much more the need of the enforcement on the streets, after 
certain hours. 

It may seem impossible because of children's persistency to have 
their own way, and they practically do, because of a lack of de- 
termination on the part of parents. Because of the persistency of 
the child, parents let them run contrary to their better judgment. 
Therefore, the Curfew law is as important to the government of a 
child as the whipping post is to the government of the man. This 
subject is explained elsewhere in this book. 

I am well aware that this subject is very unpopular and distaste- 
ful, but in reference to its application to the government of the 
human race, I have endeavored to explain at the beginning that 
human nature has never changed and never will : therefore, be- 
cause of certain conditions woven around the political standards 
of the present day, these two remedies named in governing the 
human race have become a necessity. As in the case of two con- 
tending armies, when one secures a new implement of warfare, 
the contending forces must have something to meet the emergency, 
as it was during th Civil War, when the Confederate army brought 
out their Merrimac, there had to be a Monitor to compete with it 
and destroy the Merrimac ; and, further in the physical realm, by 
our political conditions, the W. C. T. U. have come to our assist- 
ance and they are here to stay. These giant evils that have grown 
upon us, namely, the tobacco and liquor business, have apparently 
been helped to grow, and they were so deeply rooted during the 
Civil War that there is greater need of all fathers and mothers 
watching and laboring more earnestly in regard to outside condi- 
tions that tend to degrade their children. I have no doubt that 
many will see the importance of the adoption of the remedies and 
guards as here proposed, but because of the restrictive features, 
they will be opposed by -many, even those who are or should be 
responsible, will say, 'Til take the chances of my son and daugh- 
ter going astray." Others will say that this has the appearance of 
depriving one of their liberty, and it is a disgrace that any one 



2o8 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

should think they are not competent to control their own children. 
This is humiliating to the child. But all these minor objections 
are insignificant when compared to the benefit of the principles set 
forth in the Curfew law. 

But to those who may, perchance, oppose such a restriction, let 
them read every page of this book, before they condemn it, and 
then these restrictions will appear in a new light. I call to mind 
a quaint old saying that young people think old people are fools, 
but old people know young people to be fools. The proper way to 
decide this question is to let those who have become fathers and 
mothers recall the many foolish acts they did when they were 
young. Then you remember how those restraints lielped you at 
home and in school. Their value is realized now, when in their 
absence. The efforts of prohibiting the child will cause him to 
think as to what it means and that it is for their good, when, if not 
carried into effect, it will leave the child to act without thinking 
and he will become like the animal which is fed and does not have 
and help by advice in suggesting that which might be most help- 
ful. 

Because of predominating propensities of the animal, few chil- 
dren ever stop to reason much until the age of fourteen, unless 
they are compelled to think. I will not presume to give instruc- 
tions to such, but call the attention of those who have to control 
such children. Should one become interested in this matter and 
want to know what they can do, I shall be glad to give assistance 
advice by suggesting that which might be most helpful. 



REFORM BEGINS AT HOME. 

American children have long been rated abroad as the type of 
all that is forward, pert, irreverent, selfish and disobedient, but we 
ourselves have been slow to recognize, or at least acknowledge 
the fact. Not all children, praise be ! come under this condemna- 
tion, but enough to make the reproach fall upon all — the just as 
well as the unjust. Where lies the fault? In a recent symposium 
of the Mothers' Club of New York, American manners in general 
and those of children in particular, came up for discussion, dur- 



THE TWENTIICTH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 209 

ing which it was stated that American children are 4 per cent, 
more brutal than foreign children. 

This conclusion was the result of investigation through a test 
question presented to a large number of children of different 
nationalities, but all under 14 years of age. The question was : 
''What would you do with a child who on being presented with a 
box of paints went into the parlor and painted the best chair?" 
The answers of the American children alone contained such dras- 
tic suggestions as ''Thrash him within an inch of his life," "Feed 
him on bread and water," and the like. 

"The responsibility for these answers," said Mrs. Anna Spencer 
Garlin, who was the speaker of the day, "comes back to the par- 
ents. Children are extremely responsive to suggestion, and could 
only repeat the kind of discipline with which they were familiar. 
We are trying a social experiment, and our uncertainties show 
themselves in the manners of children and undeveloped people. 

"It is the half-developed idea of social equality that causes peo- 
ple to jostle us on the street cars, while the street car conductor 
who would be fairly polite in other countries, admonishes us in no 
uncertain terms to 'step lively.' This is democracy in the making. 
The true aristocrat is simple in his manners, because he is sure of 
himself. The democrat will be the same when he gets there." 

A clergyman a few weeks ago addressed the Brooklyn Board 
of Trade on juvenile depravity, asserting that the lack of decency 
and modesty among boys on the street was appalling, and called 
for some very prompt work among boys between the ages of 10 
and 15. These children showed not only a shocking lack of re- 
spect for themselves, but for others, committing acts that would 
not be tolerated in other countries, and these were lads of strictly 
American patronage. 

Librarians tell the same story. Children of foreign birth ap- 
preciate the advantages of having access to books, and are gentle 
and amenable to the rules in the reading rooms, while the American 
born are restless, destructive, and always on the lookout for some- 
thing that can be turned into sport or vulgarity. Workers in the 
tenement districts aver that the low-down Americans, that is, the 
"poor white trash," are so dirty, shiftless, lazy, and withal, self- 
satisfied, that it is almost an impossibility to do anything for them 
that leads to their betterment. 



2IO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

These are hard accusations ; but if true, is it not time that each 
of us should take the matter to heart and see if our skirts are 
clear? To start at the foundation, are we honest, sincere, unself- 
ish, in honor preferring one another? Are we backbiters, pur- 
veyors of gossip of the patty-pan order, given to inuendo, and the 
use of vulgar, slangy expressions ? 

Do we ''fly all to pieces" at one moment, threatening the chil- 
dren with all sorts of dire punishments, that we really do not mean 
to inflict, and the next condone faults that require to be dealt with 
rigorously? Do we allow our boys and girls to roam the streets 
at night until 9 or 10 o'clock unguarded and unquestioned as to 
associates ? 

What are our own manners? Do we save our good ones for 
company alone, or keep them for everyday use? Do we say 
''please" and "thank you" to children and servants as well as each 
other? Have we smiles and kind words for those v/ho live with- 
in our gates as well as the stranger? Do we make home so pleas- 
ant that children feel no call to go elsewhere for their fun? 

What of our speaking voice ? Is it on the buzz-saw order, high 
pitched, rasping, strident? Is it a roar, a querulous whine, a nasal 
twang? Children are imitative little animals, and the reform of 
children begins with reform at home. 



WHY DO WE CEASE TO BE COURTEOUS? 

Why do we cease to be polite to each other, as soon as we know 
each other well? 

Is it the "familiarity that breeds contempt ?" Is it possible that, 
having got down beneath all the disguises, we find each other to 
be unworthy of respect and consideration. 

Is it an evidence that we have been deceived in each other, and 
are angry at that deceit, that we now roar out "What?" where 
once we softly said, "I beg your pardon ?" with a rising inflection ? 

Is the change in us or in another, that where we once were 
quick to notice weariness in that other's face, and sadness in his 
eyes, and were instant and tender with sympathy, more intimate 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 21 1 

acquaintance makes us blind and indifferent to these things, if 
not impatient of them ? 

Many a man who was overcome with tender appreciation if the 
girl he loved looked, a little pale, a little later wouldn't notice that 
his wife was on the verge of a decline if the neighbors didn't come 
and tell him.. 

Many a woman is pining for the tiny nosegay of flowers, the 
new magazine or book, the simple little jaunt planned for her 
pleasure, which were once evidences of some man's thoughtful- 
ness for her. She sees a good deal more of the man now, but he 
isn't thoughtful. It doesn't occur to him to carry her bundles, un- 
less she asks him. He doesn't think to place a chair for her, to 
spring to save her steps, nor always even to lift his hat to her — be- 
cause she is his wife ! 

It is a curious reflection upon himself that this fact seems, in 
his estimation, to entitle her to less of his respect ! 

Of course, there are men and men, women and women ; and in- 
stances where, by the very nature and training of the individuals, 
outward courtesies will be kept up to the end, no matter what 
change of feelings take place in the heart. Instances, too, where 
the affection is so tender and lasting, and the nature so fine, that 
it must express itself even to old age in courtesies as delicate and 
thoughtful as any that ever distinguished the young gallant. 

But with the majority of us the sweetest flowers of courtesy are 
kept for those we know least well. When a chosen one enters 
closer and closer into the intimate circle, by that token we busquely 
push aside the little delicacies of speech and action that help to 
make life beautiful, and reveal ourselves blunt and bold, if not 
even rude. 

Are courtesies, then, merely a network of feints in which to en- 
trap our friends ? Or, as we said in the beginning, do we at first 
pay honest tribute in politeness and thoughtfulness, and only cease 
rendering these things because intimacy has taught us they are not 
deserved ? 

Alas, it must be feared that the reflection is wholly upon our- 
selves. 

Such change of manner shows either a cheapness and meanness 
upon our own part, in having shammed a politeness which was 



212 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 01^ REASON. 

not natural with us, and which, being insincere, cannot possibly 
be kept up. 

Or it shows that we have builded a false and foolish ideal, and 
worshiped it ; never having had the clear sight to behold in our 
friend that which always was and always will be worthy of our 
reverence, and, therefore, of our most sincere courtesv. 



SULKINESS WILL NOT WIN YOU FRIENDS. 

Do you ever feel misunderstood and as though the whole world 
were against you? Do you feel that you are a suffering martyr, 
whom nobody appreciates? 

When you feel that way it is time for a little self-examination. 
Just look into your heart and see if there is not a good deal of bit- 
terness and discontent there. 

It stands to reason that you can't be right and all the rest of 
humanity wrong. 

The world will take you pretty much as it finds you. If you are 
cranky, pessimistic and soured you will always be left to yourself, 
friendless and lonely. 

You may try to comfort yourself with the theory that you are 
misunderstood, but that is not so ; it is simply that people will not 
trouble themselves to be nice to any one who will not take the 
trouble to make himself agreeable. 

The strange thing about it is that the person who takes the 
least pains to be popular is very often the one who most craves 
popularity. 

The girl who does not hesitate to say sharp, unkind things, is 
the one who feels most hurt when such things are said about her- 
self. 

Popularity will not come for nothing; you must earn it. And 
once earned you must work hard to keep it. 

Sarcastic, sharp or unkind speeches will never win it for you. 
It takes geniality, kindness and unselfishness to win popularity. 

Don't sulk and feel that every one is down on you. 

Sulkiness is not an attractive quality, ^nd no one will take the 
trouble to investigate and bring you out of your unlovely mood. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 2 1 5 

They will just leave yon alone, and let you come round as best 
you may. 

Life is too short to waste one moment of it in sulky solitude. 

People don't have to put up with the disagreeable man or 
woman, and they won't do it, that's all. 

When you get up in the morning and feel cross and cranky, the 
best thing to do is to keep quiet until the mood has passed. 

If you once lose control of yourself, you will be sure to say 
something which you will regret later. 

Instead of saying to yourself, ''Everything is going wrong to- 
day," just say, ''What is the matter with me?" Nine times out of 
every ten the fault will lie with yourself. 

Give the best that you are capable of to the world every day 
and all day. 

Be cheerful, kind and sympathetic, and you will find yourself 
a thoroughly appreciated and much sought after person. 



GAMBLING AND GRAFT. 

Gambling and graft are the strongest evil propensities that the 
race has to endure. To prevent its influence from becoming so 
overwhelming that the individual who practices either and con- 
tinues there from being so absorbed by this subtle propensity as 
to be ill-fitted for any office or relation in society, is a problem of 
great moment with thinking men. The mania for gambling has 
so grown on many that they have become unfitted for the fulfil- 
ment of any trust or any position that they might seek. 

Knowing the danger there is connected with this mania, every 
individual should become his own detective, especially those who 
attempt to enforce the laws against gambling. 

The word graft seems to be a word appropriated to our present 
condition, and the many acts of injustice in the business world. It 
seems to be a political way of whitewashing what is first-class 
stealing. 

The larger par of grafting is done on those who are not in a 
position to defend themselves and surrender their positions, as it 
is the easiest way out of their difficulty, rather than contend for 



214 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

their rights when the odds are against them. They surrendered, as 
it were, to the inevitable. 

This grafting system in the business world is similar to the 
grafting of choice fruit into another tree. The growth of its 
branches will soon become part of the tree and so cement the 
branches that it is difficult to tell which are the branches that have 
been transferred. And its fruit is so mixed that it requires an ex- 
pert in fruit culture to distinguish between the grafted and the 
original fruit. Thepredominating propensity is o deceptive in its 
nature that it is liable to deceive God's elect, because of the in- 
bred desire to obtain something by shrewd business methods or by 
chance, as the boy who plays marbles will, as he advances in years, 
have a propensity to play euchre and run all church interests by 
fairs and games of chance. And if there should be a question 
raised regarding the game of euchre for a prize, someone would 
say that it is not any worse than church fairs, and I would rather 
have my children play euchre and dance at home than to go to 
kissing parties, as much as to say they must do one or the other. 
Or, if it is right for the church to do it, there can be no harm in 
our playing games of chance. It makes the game much more in- 
teresting, as it is without question a prevailing tendency of the 
human race to get something for nothing, and get rich quick. 

I feel it incumbent on my part to point out the danger of 
gambling. There is a story told of a rich nobleman, who adver- 
tised for a coach driver, and to test the expertness of driving by 
use of an object lesson, he took them near a deep precipice, and 
asked them how near they could drive to it without running off, 
and to show their great skill and adaptability, all but one of the 
applicants told how near they could drive without running off. 
When the one was questioned as to how near he could drive to 
the precipice he replied, ''The nearest I could drive would be the 
farthest away I could keep from it.'' Because of his discretion 
he was chosen. 

The disposition with a large part of the human race is like unto 
the coachmen who were not engaged. The coach driver believed 
the merit of success consisted in his expertness. If the young man 
that' plays a chance game of euchre becomes a successful winner, 
the temptation to gamble is that much' the greater. This cannot 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 215 

be otherwise, for it is natural for all, to a greater or less extent, to 
desire to win ; while it may be presented in different forms and 
entertained by some as angels unaware. 

• To my mind, the life insurance policy is one of the games of 
chance most alarming, while to others it is looked upon as bene- 
ficial, but in reality it is not. 

By the recent exposure of the methods of doing business this' 
fact is carried out. ■ Because of the certainty of death, it becomes 
a good harp to play on people's nerves, thereby they take the ad- 
vantage of these propensities of chancing as one specie of gam- 
bling. If you are interested in life insurance, this is more fully 
explained in a book entitled ''The Monitor." 

While gambling is looked upon by many as being a great crime 
or sin, it is not as great as grafting in business. When a person 
plays a game of faro at some county fair, or for money in a game 
of cards, each one knows he is going to do the other if he can, and 
it is money against money and brains against brains. Similar to 
a physical contest in a wrestling match : the best fellow wins, 
he who has the most brains. But it is not so with the grafters. 
The man or the victim of the circumstances is helpless and has to 
submit, as it were, to the inevitable. 



THE LAWYER. 

Men in this occupation need more excuse for their many defal- 
cations than those of any other business profession, because they 
have to do with so many diversities of opinion that the mind is 
more likely to become diseased. Their morals often remind one 
of the colored preacher whose text was, "There are many divers 
diseases," and he began explaining the many various diseases 
such as measles, whooping cough and smallpox. Then said he, 
"You might have them all, but the Lord have mercy on those that 
get the divers." Such is the condition of many lawyers because 
of the temptations they are subjected to. 

The many criminal cases and similar experiences in business 
calculate to deceive them. If he believes his client to be guilty 
and knows the temptation to assure him that it can be won, and 



2i6 the: twentieth century age of reason. 

then charges him as much as he can get, knowing that when a 
man is on the wrong side he is wiUing to pay a good price for 
his services. And because of the many misdoings of men and 
women, becomes the practice as a source of revenue and instead 
of having any feeHng of sympathy for him, he is more incHned 
to be pleased that his chent has done the criminal act, because 
his occupation is profited the more by such ; and if he ever has 
any conscientious scruples regarding the condition of his clients 
it becomes callous and may be illustrated by a story told by two 
men who became involved in a law-suit, and as it happened they 
both went to the same attorney to secure counsel. He informed 
him that his services were engaged by his opponent and he recom- 
mended him to another by writing a note which he was to give 
to the other attorney, and thinking perhaps it would be wise to 
know what it contained before delivering it to the other attorney, 
he opened the letter which read as follows : ''I send you a good 
fat goose, you pick this one, Til pick the other." 

We do not say this principle of grafting is any stronger de- 
veloped in the lawyer than in the average person, but his occupa- 
tion gives so many opportunities and temptations that they nat- 
urally, if cherished, become second nature, and they do many 
things that others would look on as being far from right. While 
the profession of law has its charms, it is not one that tends to 
develop the noble qualities which man is capable of possessing. I 
have said the first impression is to deceive first his client, then the 
judge and jury and success will elevate him in the estimation of 
others, because it adds to his financial strength which all profes- 
sions must have. 

The worse part of the profession is the social side; it seems 
almost a necessity, especially in the custom of tobacco and liquor 
so universally used, that for a lawyer not to indulge in either 
would be a living curiosity, and it is no more than ought to be 
expected. The social side reaches out in so m.any various ways 
that it might be compared to the aspen whose leaves are continu- 
ally in motion, for they are subject to political influences more 
than any other profession. The supposed necessity for a stimu- 
lant after a trial, because of the nervous exhaustion, brings other 
influences to bear on the lawyer. It is a common saying that 



the: twe:ntie:th ce:ntury age: o? reason. 217 

birds of a feather flock together. One of most attractive fra- 
ternities to the lawyer is the Elks, an order which is character- 
isticly named as his horns branch out in so many ways that it is 
suggestive to the profession and order, and is not misleading in 
any sense. It is a very common custom to have bar and sideboard 
accommodations for all those who desire to indulge. While some 
of the older Elks die quite suddenly because of their indulgence, 
the younger ones seem to fail to take warning and follow in their 
path. For this reason the emblem of their fraternal order should 
be changed to denote the character of some other animal hereto- 
for referred to. 

Blackstone says that lav/ is founded upon common sense, reason 
and justice. As this is true, justice can only be secured and main- 
tained by the individual putting this saying into practice, as indi- 
viduals comprise the nation. Our Courts and our Legislatures and 
Congress are controlled by the individuals whom they elect, and 
there comes a responsibility to each person to so act in the main- 
tenance of good government as it will be impossible for a nation 
to exist or rise any higher than the controling power in politics, as 
that power will so act for the welfare of its people. If the indi- 
vidual acts contrary to common sense in his right of franchise, he 
reaps what he sows ; if he deposits his ballot with a political party 
that he knows makes evil laws to sustain that party in power, he 
must know the same evil he votes for, if he should practice it, 
would destroy him, and how can he hope for the nation to prosper ? 
By doing this he must act contrary to his better judgment. All 
nations exist and prosper just in proportion to the above quota- 
tions being practiced. If this is true, then we ask : "Is not the per- 
son acting contrary to those principles, depending on his neighbor 
to support good government and not acting accordingly himself ?" 
It is evident that such a person is destroying his usefulness as a 
citizen in the maintenance of good government, and is acting in 
conjunction with a class that through whose influence many evils 
are being practiced, and it is evident that that class would destroy 
the government if placed by themselves, and thus good govern- 
ment would be impossible, and there is no reason why they should 
not be classed an anarchists. 



2i8 the; twentieth century age oe reason. 

THE CORROSION OF MUCH WEALTH. 

The millions of'toilers who, by strong effort, get out of life just 
bare comfort may find some consolation for the absence of riches 
if they will but observe the fantastic capers and the wild "tragedies 
of some of the millionaires. It was not in wantonness and foolish- 
ness that the Maker of the world provided that nearly all men 
must strive, and strive persistently, if they would live ; nor did 
the Founder of the Christian religion err when he indicated that 
blessedness lies truly along the line of scant wealth and sharp self- 
denial. 

Plain enough it is, to him who will look and consider, that, were 
most men idle and the mass of them rich, the world would be pan- 
demonium and life an orgy. It was no curse, but a mighty blessing, 
put upon the race when the first sinner drifted out of Paradise, 
with the compulsion upon him to earn his bread by strenuous en- 
deavor. Humanity finds its salvation and society its cohesive force 
in that requirement. The real curse would have been to doom 
man to indolence and unbridled opportunity. 

This is indeed the calamity that befalls some men in our own 
time ; and that furnishes sometimes mirth and scorn and some- 
times horror for the public press. Those who envy the idle rich 
are many. Those who will study them with profit to themselves 
be few in number ; but surely any wise man who has work for his 
own hands to do, and no dollars with which to corrupt his chil- 
dren, may learn a lesson of warning and of gratitude as he con- 
templates a catastrophe as that which befell in New York City on 
Monday. 

Deep poverty is bitter, and no man need either covet it or try to 
like it ; but all the history of the race supplies proof that the boy 
who has to grapple with adverse circumstances and to fight hard, 
and for years, to get upon his feet, has a far better chance of hap- 
piness than the boy born rich. 

The Prodigal Son was not the first affluent, pampered youth 
who wasted himself on fast living. That kind of a man, with a 
father's money to burn, no doubt appeared as soon as men began 
to store up wealth, and to-day men like him, engaged in the ancient 
fool processes and mad with same deliriums, can be counted by 
hundreds in every great city in the world. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 219 

You can get on the track of almost everything in the Scriptures. 
Curious, is it not, that the parable of the Prodigal Son is a pro- 
phecy of swarms of gilded American boys, and that the only 
glimpse of the other world supplied by the Gospels shows a rich 
man in hell ? 

All the lessons taught by the earliest, or the latest, of the trage- 
dies of reckless youthful folly stimulated by money and oppor- 
tunity are so familiar as to be shopworn. Nobody wants to hear 
them from the preacher or in the newspaper. Most men do not 
believe in the truths, anyhow, and of those who do profess to be- 
lieve them, nearly all would jump eagerly at the first offer of 
large wealth, and would consent to take their chances with the 
cankering stuff. 

But no matter what the delusion and the unbelief, the solid fact 
remains that out of mere riches no human being ever got solid and 
enduring satisfaction. The further fact is incontestable that no 
man ever gave himself up to pursuit of money without losing 
things that for value cannot be estimated in terms of wealth. 

Bunyan's man with the muck rake is the immortal type of mul- 
titudes of sharp American business men who, in their absorption 
in the base and sordid things, are completely blind to the things 
that are really precious. 

Is it really worth while, for example, for a man to surrender 
himself so completely to the fight for millions that he has no time 
left to bring up his sons in the right and safe way. And of what 
us is it to pile up money in great heaps for children who have been 
brought up in the wrong way ? Wliy expend your sweat and 
your intellect and your very life in drumming for dollars which 
will propel your boys towards perdition? 

There seems to be a law of retribution that works in these mat- 
ters. The old man sacrifices the boys, and the boys are hot- footed 
to break his heart and to sacrifice him and to throw away his 
money among the women whose feet take hold on hell. Neglect 
for neglect. The father perverteth his rightful function as the ed- 
ucator of his children and devotes himself to money. They re- 
spond by caring little for him and much only for the money that 
they can scatter in dissipation. 



220 the: twentieth century age 0? REASON. 

Many great fortunes in this country have been built up by 
crime ; and more than once, apparently, the sequence has been that 
the money filched unjustly from somebody has urged the filcher's 
heirs to infamy. "Woe to him," said the prophet in the old time, 
"who guilds his house with iniquity !" The fortune ill-got is pois- 
onous for the accumulator and for his posterity. This nation re- 
gards the colossal wealth gathered into the control of vicious men 
with just apprehension. It is indeed a menace to the country; but 
it means the owners and their kith and kin more than any other 
persons. 

Very often the man who swiftly acquires large wealth supplies 
a curious subject for study. Usually he loses his mental balance. 
He may develop an aversion to a faithful wife to whom he would 
have been devoted had he remained poor, and manifest a hanker- 
ing after painted and tainted women; he may build a grotesque 
and monstrous house, or he may go scuttling about through 
Europe, playing the fool in many new and strange ways ; or he 
may simply intensify his greed and permit his appetite for money 
to take possession of his life and consume it. 

The dollar disease is as well defined as any other familiar form 
of mental malady. Men are money-mad as they are opium dopes 
or victims of strong drink ; and they transmit the mania to their 
unfortunate posterity. 

Is the game, at its best, really worth the candle? What is a 
boy worth before he wrecks his life with uncleanness and con- 
cludes it, perhaps, with murder? What is wealth beyond calcu- 
lation worth if a man have not domestic peace and peace of con- 
science and of mind? What, under the most comforting and al- 
luring and lawful circumstances, can money be worth after a man 
has satisfied all his sane and rational wants and cannot go a step 
further without satiety or insanity? 

The only wise and happy man, surely, is he who, amid all the 
whirl and the tumult, amid the fury of the lust for money and 
the fierceness of the temptation to join in the witches' dance, keeps 
his judgment cool and his vision clear and the dollar mania far 
away from infecting him. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 221 

A HORRIBLE EXAMPLE. 

Harry Thaw's present predicament ought to serve as an elo- 
quent warning of the dangers that attend the course of rich young 
men without occupations. This fellow had every reason to be 
straight, every incentive to be decent. His father was a square, 
sturdy man of business, level headed and shrewd. His mother is 
a woman of the most excellent character, religious and kind, per- 
haps too kind. 

The father, knowing the perils of idleness, willed that the son 
should have, out of the vast estate he left, an income of only $2,- 
500 a year. It was obviously his purpose to force the young man 
to go to work to earn the income which his rearing had probably 
made him regard as necessary to his well being. But instead of 
following this plan, the youth persuaded the fond mother to raise 
the limit and give him an annual revenue so large that it led him 
into wanton extravagance and into habits of indescribable folly 
and danger. His moral backbone, probably never very stiff, was 
quickly broken down completely, and it may be questioned whether 
after several years of idleness and dissipation it was possible for 
Harry Thow to "brace up" and be a man. 

Such a life is an utter waste, whether it ends on the gallows, in 
an insane asylum, the grave or a suicide or the chance bed of a 
lodging house for tramps. It might have been a useful life, con- 
tributing to the pleasure and happiness of the world, making other 
lives easier and brighter. 

Suppose Harry Thaw, taking advantage of his father's great 
fortune, had gone to work to put it to good uses. Suppose, after 
proving himself worthy, he had devoted his surplus to the erection 
of model tenements in the crowded cities, or the establishment of 
hospitals, or the creation of business enterprises giving clean, 
wholesome, well-paid employment to thousands of men and 
women. He would then have been worth while. The money he 
has squandered on wine and women during a dozen years would 
probably suffice to endow a home for incurables in his native city 
that would stand as a permanent monument to his name. 

Now he crouches in a cell, accused of murdering a useful man, 
his crime explained by his friends only on the ground of insanity, 



222 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

which, if it exists, is undoubtedly the result of his debauchery. 
There is no excuse for such a crime, and the hideous spectacle 
which this miserable man presents to-day should be widely held 
up to view as a token of the fate that awaits the youth who thinks 
to live without working and to take his pleasures withovit stint. — 
Washington Star. 



LIQUOR AND LONGEVITY. 

At the annual meeting of the American Association of Life In- 
surance Examining Surgeons Dr. T, D. Crothers, of Hartford, 
Conn., read a paper entitled **How Far Does the Moderate Use 
of Alcohol Affect Longevity?" 

He maintained that recent scientific study has shown that alcohol 
is a depressant even in small doses and that it disturbs the blood 
circulation and deranges the metabolism of the body. Experience, 
he said, proves that small quantities of spirits retard growths in 
animal life as well as in the vegetable world. Besides its poison- 
ous effects, alcohol literally produces starvation. 

English statistics practically show that it increases mortality 
and diminishes longevity in from 25 to 40 per cent, of all cases. 

Studies of heredity prove that the moderate drinker is a greater 
risk than the total abstainer and that his mortality is increased, the 
risk being increased with the amount of spirits taken. He claimed 
also that no other poison is so dangerous, both directly and in- 
directly, in diminishing the vital forces. 



GOVERNMENT MIGHT KEEP MILLIONS ALIVE. 

Much favorable comment has been made by members of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science upon the 
paper read yesterday by Professor J. Pease Morton, of Yale, upon 
the ''Advisability of a National Department of Health," in which 
he said : 



the: twentieth century age o^ reason. 223 

''There are four great wastes to-day, the more lamentable be- 
cause they are unnecessary. They are preventable death, prevent- 
able sickness, preventable conditions of low physical and mental 
efficiency and preventable ignorance. 

''The facts are cold and bare. One million five hundred thous- 
and persons must die in the United States during the next six 
months. Equivalent to 4,200,000 persons will be constantly sick. 
Over 5,000,000 homes, consisting of 25,000,000 persons, will be 
made more or less wretched by mortality and morbidity. 

"We look with horror on the black plague of the middle ages. 
The black plague was a passing cloud compared with the white 
waste visitation. Of the people living to-day, over eight millions 
must die of tuberculosis, and not a hand is raised by the Federal 
Government to help them. 

"Eight millions must die of pneumonia, and the entire event is 
accepted with as resigned a mien, as the Hindoos show, who, in 
the midst of indescribable filth, await the day of the cholera. More 
than six millions of infants under two years of age must suc- 
cumb during the next census period. Yet it is probable that these 
numbers could be cut in two. 

"The National Government expends annually $7,000,000 on 
plant health and animal health through the Department of Agri- 
culture, but not one cent is expended directly on the health of in- 
fants, save through the splendid work of Drs. Wiley, Atwater, 
Benedict, etc. 

"Thousands have been expended in stamping out cholera among 
swine, but not one cent has been expended for eradicating pneu- 
monia among human beings. The Department of Agriculture has 
expended during the last ten years over $46,000,000. 



DR. PETERS PREACHES ON THE PERILS OF WEALTH. 

Dr. Madison C. Peters, of the Baptist Church of the Epiphany, 
preaching this morning on "The Future of the Republic," speak- 
ing of the concentration of capital, said: 

"True prosperity depends far more on the equity of the wealth 
distribution than upon the aggregate amount of wealth possessed. 



224 '^^il^ TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 01? REASON. 

In i860 the wealth of this country — $16,159,616,000 — was very 
evenly distributed — half of the wealth was in the possession of 
half of the people, and poverty was not only confined to the cities, 
but to small sections of them. The wealth of the country in 1900 
was $94,300,000,000, and three-tenths of i per cent. (0.3) of the 
people owned 20 per cent, of the wealth, 9 per cent, of the people 
51 per cent, of the wealth, while 91 per cent, of the people owned 
only 29 per cent, of the wealth. 

''One hundred and twenty-five families in the United States 
have more wealth than all the other 80,000,000 of people put to- 
gether. Just prior to the fall of the Roman Empire, the entire 
wealth was in the hands of 1900 men. How long will it be, if our 
present ratio be maintained, ere a few hundred will own all the 
wealth of the country? 

''When few men have scores of mansions and millions of acres 
for pleasure grounds, while there are 10,000,000 of persons in the 
United States who are much of the time underfed, poorly clothed 
and improperly housed, even our most conservative people are be- 
ginning to realize that this is a privilege inconsistent with a form 
of government where the will of the people in the forms of laws 
is supposed to exist." 



A WORD TO BUSINESS MEN. 

JESSE S. GILBERT. 

It is passing strange that business men of our country, do not 
see what aparasite upon the tree of industry and legitimate traffic 
the liquor trade has become. The money that is spent for intoxi- 
cants, if expended for more and better food, clothing, shoes, fur- 
niture, books and travel, would cause every honest business in the 
country, to advance with leap and bounds. Besides this diversion 
of money, mostly hard earned, from healthful channels, there is 
another side to the matter. 

The $1,500,000,000 annually expended in the United States for 
rum, gives employment to about 44,417 men. The very same 
amount, if expended in the manufacture of boots and shoes, would 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 225 

furnish employment for 416,000 men. If it were expended in the 
manufacture of worsted goods, it would employ 458,683 persons, 
if that of cotton goods, 300,000. These figures speak for them- 
selves. The same principle pervades all manufactur and all trade. 
Remove this incubus, and all will begin to revolve with increased 
velocity. 

"The logic that justifies an annual appropriation of $2,000,000 
ior a life-saving service against the accidents at sea should justify 
protection against accidents of disease and death. 

'It is probable that a National Department of Health could be 
advantageously made to consist of the following bureaus : 

''Infant hygiene, education and schools, sanitation, pure food, 
registration of drugs, druggists and drug manufacturers, registra- 
tion of institutions of public and private relief, correction, deten- 
tion and residence; organic diseases, quarantine, health informa- 
tion, immigration, labor conditions, research requiring statistics, 
research requiring laboratories and equipment." 

Among those who addressed the meeting in favor of such a de- 
partment were Dr. W. H. Welch, of Johns Hopkins University 
and president of the American Association; Dr. A. C. Abbott, 
president of the Board of Health of Philadelphia, and Dr. Richard 
€. Newton, of Montclair, N. J. 



MAINE'S PROSPERITY UNDER PROHIBITION. 

In the state the people are enjoying a prosperity the like of 
which was never known. Within our borders there is no poverty, 
no want. Our poorhouses were never so empty. Our bank de- 
posits were never so large, the depositors so numerous. Thrift, 
industry, sobriety were never so characteristic of the people. Peace 
and plenty, comfort and security, abound. Nor are we fortunate 
in this alone. 

There were never so many clean towns in our state ; there were 
never so many orderly villages. Our cities were tiever so well 
■g'overned. The social atmosphere was never so pure and sweet; 
culture and refinement so prevalent. In short, the state of Maine 



226 the: TWI3NTIETH CENTURY AGi: OF REASON. 

was never before so good a state in which to live ; and no one ever 
claimed it as his birthplace with as much pride, as to-day. 

The financial affairs of the state are in excellent condition. With 
a tax rate of only two and one-half mills, at the close of last year 
there was a balance in the treasury of rising $430,000. In the 
year 1905, the legislative year, the total bonded indebtedness of 
the state was reduced $23,000. This year, 1906, the debt has been 
reduced $100,000, with preparations already made for purchasing 
$100,000 worth more of our bonds in July ; and the state treasurer 
tells me that there is the highest probability of being able to take 
up another hundred thousand dollars' worth before the end of the 
present year, which will make a reduction of $323,000 in the two 
years of the present administration and reduce the interest account 
by $10,000. At the same time there has been taken and used 
for municipal purposes MORE MONEY than ever before in the 
history of the state, 251 towns now receiving more money from 
the treasury than they pay into it, $800,000 being used yearly for 
the purposes of education and $50,000 for good roads. — Hon. H. 
H. Hastings, Portland, Me., June 27, 1906. 



HOW LIQUOR IS DEBAUCHING PITTSBURG. 

The Dispatch, of Pittsburg, Pa., says : 

''The report of Warden W. J. Lewis, of the county jail, shows 
that over 7,000 persons were committed to the institution last year 
for drunkenness and offenses committed through alcoholic influ- 
ence. 

''The exact number of persons who served sentences at the j^il 
for drunkenness was 3,626, while 98 per cent, of the 2,400 persons 
committed on charges of disorderly conduct were under the in- 
fluence of liquor when arrested. 

"Warden Lewis said yesterday that fully 90 per cent, of the 
summary conviction cases received at the jail last year owed their 
downfall to drunkenness. Some of these persons are confined to 
padded cells and a few are in straight- jackets. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 01^ REASON. 227 

LIQUOR SELLING TO INDIANS. 

A delegation of Sioux Indians from Yankton, S. D., came to 
Washington for the inauguration. These Indians are among the 
very few of the country who possess the rights of citizenship, and 
they claim that their votes in the last election swung the tide in 
South Dakota for President Roosevelt. Their interpreter made 
the following significant statement: "In spite of the law on the 
statute books and all regulations of the Indian Bureau, white men, 
in search of the dollar, persist in dispensing whisky and rum to 
the Indians, and this under the very eyes of the reservation offi- 
cials, who have taken no steps to break up the practice. One of 
the main reasons for coming to Washington was to see if the liquor 
law could not be enforced on their reservation at Yankton. Liquor 
is a bad thing for Indians, and we want to have the sale stopped. 
There ought to be government detectives to prevent people frorq 
making the Indians drunk when they don't want to get drunk but 
want to be sober and industrious. Somehow the authorities let the 
trading in whisky go right along and we can't stop it." 



THE BAR. 

The saloon is sometimes called a bar, that's true — 

A bar to heaven, a door to hell; 
Whoever named it, named it well. 
A bar to manliness and wealth, 
A door to want and broken health. 
A bar to honor, pride and fame, 
A door to sin, and grief and shame. 
A bar to hope, a bar to prayer, 
A door to darkness and despair. 
A bar to honored, useful life, 
A door to brawling, senseless strife. 
A bar to all that's true and brave, 
A door to every drunkard's grave. 
A bar to joys that home imparts, 
A door to tears and aching hearts. 
A bar to heaven, a door to hell. 
Whoever named it named it well. 

— Philadelphia Press. 



:228 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

GERMANY'S DRINK INCUBUS. 

The money spent in Germany on drink is three times the cost 
of the army and navy together, and more than seven times the 
cost of primary education in Germany. Its amount is almost equal 
to that of the German national debt, and so the German people, by 
leaving off drink for a year and a month, could pay off the whole 
■debt. The Germans have always had the reputation of being 
mighty drinkers, and it appears from the official statistician that 
they deserve it. So says a contemporary. 



THE ENGINEER'S REMEDY. 

Mr. Engineer was a gray-haired, thick-set man of fifty, quiet 
and unobtrusive, and deeply in love with his beautiful machine. 
He had formerly run a locomotive, and now took a stationary en- 
gine because he could get no employment on the railroads. A long 
talk with the superintendent of the road from which he had been 
removed revealed only one fault in the man's past life — he loved 
strong drink. 

"He is," said the informant, ''as well posted on steam as any 
man on the road ; he worked up from train boy to fireman, from 
fireman to engineer, rendered us valuable services, has saved 
many lives by his quickness and bravery, but he cannot let drink 
alone and for that reason we have discharged him." . 

In spite of this discouraging report, I hired the man. During 
the first week of his stay I passed through the engine-room many 
times a day in the course of my factory rounds, but never found 
aught amiss. The great machine run as smoothly and quietly as 
if its bearings were set in velvet; the steel crosshead and crank- 
shaft and the brass oil cups reflected the morning sun like mir- 
rors ; no speck of dust found lodging in the room. 

In the fire room the same order prevailed ; the steam gauge 
showed even pressure, the water gauges were always just right and 
our daily report showed that we were burning less coal than form- 
erly. The most critical inspection failed to find anything about 
either the engine or boilers that showed the faintest symptoms of 
neglect or carelessness. 



the: twentieth century age O? reason. 229* 

Three weeks passed. The man who had been recommended as 
good for "five days' work and two days' drunk" had not swerved 
a hair from his duty. The gossips were beginning to notice and 
to comment upon the strange affair. 

"I should hke to speak to you a moment, sir," said he, one 
one morning, as I passed through his sanctum. 

*'Well, John, what now?" I said, drawing out my notebook. 
"CyHnder oil all gone?" 

"It is about myself," he replied. 

I motioned him to proceed. 

"Thirty-two years ago I drank my first glass of liquor," said the 
engineer, "and for the past ten years, up to last month, no week 
has passed without its Saturday night drunk. During those ten. 
years I was not blind to the fact that the appetite was getting a 
frightful hold upon me. At times my struggles against the long- 
ing for stimulants were earnest. My employers once offered me 
a thousand dollars if I would not touch liquor for three months, 
but I lost it ; I tried all sorts of antidotes, and all failed. My wife 
died praying that I might be rescued, yet my promises to her were 
broken within two days. I signed pledges and joined societies, 
but appetite was still my master. My employers reasoned with 
me, discharged me, forgave me, but all to no effect. I could not 
stop, and I knew it. 

"When I came to work for you I did not expect to stay a week ;. 
I was nearly done for ; but now," and the man's face lighted up 
with an unspeakable joy," "in this extremity, when I was ready 
to plunge into hell for a glass of rum, I found a sure remedy. I 
am saved from my appetite !" 

"What is your remedy?" 

The engineer took up an old open Bible that lay face down on 
the window ledge and read, "The blood of Jesus cleanseth from 
all sin." — The National Advocate. 



THE LIQUOR BILL FOR 1905. 

The American Grocer compiles and analyzes the statistics of 
liquor consumption annually, and has just issued its statement 
for 1905, based upon the Government Excise statistics. The fig- 



230 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE O^ REASON. 

ures for 1905, just issued, show a continuation of the same steady 
annual increase in this item of national expenditure as has been 
observed in the years previous. We spent for beverages $1,548,- 
708,307, as against $1,498,622,715 in 1904, $1,541,633,279 in 1903, 
$1,369,098,276 in 1902, and $1,273,212,386 in 1901. The alcohoHc 
drink bill which enters into this computation as given by the 
American Grocer, is $1,325,439,074. Of this sum, $771,675,959 
is given as the beer bill, $96,005,230 is the wine bill, while whisky 
is charged up to the amount of $457,757,875. The total drink bill 
to-day, as the compiler states, is "one-fourth of the total estimated 
production of cotton, wheat, corn, hay and tobacco crops, and 
every other product of farms, orchards, cattle ranches, dairies and 
every other agricultural inductry. It amounts to one-eighth of the 
nation's total expenditure for food." 

The consumption of wine and whisky has not been a steady in- 
crease, but more or less erratic. But the increase of beer drink- 
ing has been as steady and seemingly inevitable as that of popula- 
tion. From 1863 to the current year there have been only six 
years in which setbacks of even a fraction of a gallon occurred. 

The increase has been not only absolute but relative to the pop- 
ulation, namely 21 3-5 per cent., during a period when the popu- 
lation increased only 6^ per cent. The per capita consumption 
has greatly increased, and has reached an annual expenditure of 
$93.00 for each family of five persons, while the Bureau of Labor 
•gives $749 as the average family's annual income. 



THE COST. 

According to the facts published by the Church Economist, the 
liquor traffic for the year 1903 cost the nation the following start- 
ling summary: 

Twenty-five hundred babies were smothered by drunken women. 

Five thousand persons committed suicide. 

Sixty thousand fallen girls through drink. 

Three hundred thousand paupers. 

Three thousand murdered wives. 

Seven thousand and nineteen additional murders. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 23 1 

Forty thousand widowed mothers. 

One hundred thousand orphaned children. 

One hundred thousand insane. 

One hundred thousand criminals. 

One hundred thousand died drunkards. 

In addition to this a minister in Boston compiled statistics care- 
fully gleaned from clippings and tells us that 580,000 boys formed 
the habit of drinking intoxicating liquors and are in line to keep 
up the processions of victims of this modern Moloch. — Marie C. 
Brehm in Union Signal 



NEW JERSEY'S BARKEEPERS. 

New Jersey has 3,810 saloon keepers, 3,610 barkeepers, 7,420 
in all, busy day and night making drunkards and criminals, with 
2,622 clergymen trying to counteract this evil influence. 

In Camden three citizens counted 1,205 men going into a corner 
saloon one Sabbath between 7 A. M. and 5 P. M. It is needless 
to ask why the men are not in the churches. Essex and Hudson 
counties contain more than a third of the population of our State. 
Newark, the largest city in Essex, has 1,283 saloons, requiring 
360 policemen to make 6,399 arrests. Jersey City, in Hudson 
County, has 1,021 saloons, 250 policemen, 7,343 arrests. 

The taxpayers maintain for these jails, prisons, penitentiaries, 
reformatories, police stations, judges, juries, lawyers, all requir- 
ing salaries, court fees, costs of prosecutions, etc. — Mrs. Emma 
Bourne, State President W. C. T. U. 



EVERYBODY'S ENEMY. 

Tell a young man that a certain person is dishonest and he will 
look out for him. 

Show the young man that this dishonest person is shrewd and 
unscrupulous, that he overcomes prejudice with misrepresenta- 
tion and false promises, but that his sole purpose is to ruin and 
destroy, and he will have nothing to do with him. 



232 the; twentieth century age of reason. 

Convince him that this unscrupulous person wields a mighty 
power, but that his power is all for evil ; that he works insidiously 
ject,and industry, but his work is all in one direction, and for ob- 
and industriously, but his work is all in one direction, and for one 
object, the humiliation and degredation of others, and the young 
man will shun and despise him. 

Prove that through some subtle influence this dangerous person 
gains control of good men, but that his power is a withering blight 
that wrecks homes and ruins happiness, and there would be such 
a feeling of indignation that he would be driven from the com- 
munity. 

But there is an enemy compared with which the power of the 
worst person in the world is weak and harmless. This enemy is 
whisky. 

When an individual seeks to injure you he may do his utmost 
of damage, but he cannot take away your reasoning power, your 
ability to cope with discouraging situations. Whatever happens, 
your brain is clear, and you are able to plan some way out of the 
difficulty. 

But when whisky is the antagonist, you stand to lose in every 
conflict. You haven't an argument left in any controversy. 
Whisky paralyzes the judgment and destroys the will power. It 
deceives its victim with egotistic fancies and gives him a false idea 
of his own importance. 

Whisky blunts a man's sensibility and makes him forget his 
duty to his family. It brings desolation and misery into his home. 
It destroys his ambition and ruins his finances, and then, when 
all is over, when it has done its worst and friends and home and 
fortune and position are all swept away, and in sheer desperation 
the man would break away from the enemy that has caused his 
undoing, he finds that he may not go. He may not break the 
chains that years of delusion have forged. 

Possibly he doesn't understand this. When he is sober enough 
to understand anything he doesn't see how it has all come about. 
When he commenced drinking he had no thought of making any 
trouble. He drank a little for sociability, then he drank for stim- 
ulation — he thought w^hisky made him feel better — or perhaps he 
drank for inspiration or for courage — he thought he could do bet- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 233 

ter work ; but, whatever the cause, he didn't mean ^o ruin his Hfe 
or wreck his home. Neither does any man when he begins the 
pace that leads to inebriety. 

There is need of more educational work along preventive lines 
of temperance. As has been said in these columns before, it some- 
times is difficult to convince a young man that moderate drinking 
is a vice when he can point to respectable men who are moderate 
drinkers. But all young men should understand that, whether 
moderate drinking is a vice or not, it is always a danger. 

For one man who fixes a limit to his potations there are scores 
who become drunkards. And even if one could be sure he would 
keep to his limit, what is the advantage of drinking at all ? 

Whisky, even in moderation, is a heavy handicap for a young 
man. It bars his way to the best positions and hinders his ad- 
vancement in the places he can secure. It combines the worst 
characteristics of an individual with the subtle power of a drug. 
It deceives with false promises and unfits a man for successful 
effort. Whisky is an enemy to everything that makes life worth 
living. — Banner of Gold. 



WHAT SAN FRANCISCO LEARNED. 

The earthquake shook a powerful temperance lesson out of San 
Francisco. Almost the first thing done by the authorities was to 
destroy all liquor that could be found and shut the saloons up tight 
and fast. This was an elementary necessity of the situation, for 
intoxicants would have intensified the disorder and lawlessness of 
the occasion, releasing men's passions and criminal instincts when 
the usual bonds of society were already dissolved, and thus turn- 
ing the burning city into an awful hell. 

And this prohibition of the saloon still continues nearly a month 
after the earthquake and will be made indefinite. The press re- 
port says that on May ii "All saloon licenses were ordered re- 
voked by unanimous vote of the Board of Police Commissioners, 
on suggestion of Mayor Schmitz, who said that he had decided 
that all saloons should remain closed for an indefinite period. He 
16 



234 I^HE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

attributed the absence of crime and the presence of order since 
the conflagration to the fact that the edict against the selUng of 
Hquor has been rigidly enforced. The Commissioners were a unit 
in voicing the sentiment that the future welfare of the city would 
be enhanced by a fewer number of drinking places." 

No other kind of business in all that city was ordered closed. 
Stores, factories, banks, offices, schools, churches, places of amuse- 
ment — all were free to resume business and every effort was made 
to open the way for them. But the saloon must close up and stay 
shut ! Why this invidious distinction ? Is it not because the saloon 
is a blackleg and outlaw in our civilization, a breeding-place of dis- 
order and crime? It works with the earthquake and the fire to 
destroy the city: all other kinds of business work against earth- 
quake and fire and crime to restore and strengthen and beautify 
the city. 

That press report is one of the most powerful temperance les- 
sons and prohibition arguments ever heard in this country. If 
the suppression of the saloon is good for the city for a time as a 
means of healing its awful hurt, why is not such suppression good 
for all time as a means of keeping the city sound and safe ? Is the 
saloon, now held in abeyance until the city recovers itself, going 
to be let loose on it as soon as the city is again on its feet ? 

A business that is so akin to the destruction of earthquake and 
fire that it must be stopped while these are doing their work, 
should be treated as we treat fire and put out of business altogether. 
We would almost be willing to say : Let the whole country be 
rocked with an earthquake if it will only shake the saloon into ev- 
erlasting ruin. — Presbyterian Banner. 



WORSE THAN TINNED MEAT. 

London, July 13- — The worst article that this country sends to 
Great Britian is the American cigarette, in the opinion of Edward 
Page Gaston, of Chicago, who discussed the subject before the 
Select Committee of the House of Lords on Juvenile Smoking to- 
day. The committee is considering a bill providing for a fine of 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 235 

$5 for the first offense in supplying tobacco to minors, $io for a 
second offense and the revocation of the offender's Hcense on a 
third conviction. 

"It is worse than Chicago tinned meat," said Gaston, in reply 
to Earl Beauchamp, chairman of the committee, who questioned 
him closely. Asked regarding the effect of the American law 
against the sale of tobacco to minors, Gaston stated that nearly 
one-fourth of the population of the United States had been bene- 
fited through living under anti-cigarette legislation. He also 
warned the British legislators against attempts of bribery on the 
part of the American Tobacco Trust in order to balk unfriendly 
enactments. It is believed the proposed bill will receive the in- 
dorsement of the committee, and that it is looked upon with favor 
by the House of Lords. 

FIGHTING CIGARETTES FOR YEARS. 

Chicago, July 3. — Members of the Gaston family have been 
active in the fight against cigarettes for many years. Edward 
Page Gaston, however, is not so well known in this connection as 
his sister. Miss Lucy Page Gaston, the present superintendent of 
the Anti-Cigarette League. Miss Gaston has conducted a fight 
against the use and sale of cigarettes for the last 15 years, and has 
been instrumental in securing the passage in different States of a 
number of acts regulating their use and sale. She has caused 
raids to be made on places where cigarettes were sold in violation 
of the law, and has many times prosecuted the violators in Court. 

It was chiefly through her efforts that a special license of $25 
per annum was placed in this city on the selling of cigarettes and 
a prohibition placed upon their sale within a considerable distance 
of public school buildings. The Anti-Cigarette League, under her 
management, was in active sympathy and correspondence with the 
opponents of the cigarettes when the laws against its use were 
passed in Indiana and Wisconsin. Miss Gaston is at present en- 
gaged in the effort to secure the passage of additional legislation 
regulating the cigarette business. 



236 THi: TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

ANDREW CARNEGIE'S WARNING TO YOUNG MEN. 

Great captains of industry are generally so much absorbed in 
the pursuit of gain that they seldom, if ever, make a public address 
in which they emphasize the importance of moral virtues. Mr. 
Carnegie is an exception, since at the opening of St. Andrews, in 
Dundee, Scotland, some months ago, he brought out the import- 
ance of abstaining from alcohol and tobacco as hindrances in the 
race of life. As the result of correspondence with Mr. Carnegie, 
we are in receipt of The Dundee Advertiser, containing an excel- 
lent report of his address. While pressing upon the young men 
the importance of paying strict attention to their physical develop- 
ment that they might for a sound mind have a sound body, he said 
he should ''like to call their attention to the possibility that even 
while they reap with one hand they might waste with the other, 
that they might indulge in habits that neutralized the good effects 
of their exercises. 

''There were two such habits very common among the young 
men to-day. The first and miost serious was the use of alcoholics. 
A dangerous habit very likely to cause grievous results all agreed ; 
that it could cause no beneficial results all agreed. It was there- 
fore the part of wisdom to abstain from the habit that might work 
evil and could do no good. That no ill effects were visible from 
indulgence during the vigorous period of youth rendered the dan- 
ger of serious consequences in after life still greater than if the ill 
effects were visible from the beginning. They were playing with 
an insidious foe. 

"Viewing them as young steeds training for the race of life, he 
knew of no one habit so likely to defeat them in the contest as the 
drinking of alcoholic liquors. That, taken in excess, they de- 
stroyed the character of men and rendered them useless members 
of society, they all knew. The line between excess and sufficiency 
was so narrow that it was very seldom the drinker knew and ob- 
served it. Better be on the safe side. Why run into danger? As 
no possible good could result from indulgence, no risk should be 
incurred. Believe him, in the stern game of life they had all to 
play ; they could afford to throw no advantages away. 

"Drunkenness was the great rock ahead in the career of every 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 237 

young man. It was far more important that he insure himself 
against it than against death. A drink poHcy was worth ten life 
policies in their case. Abstain and evade the danger. 

''There is another danger, not to compare with the first, still it 
was one which he ventured to bring to their attention — the use 
of tobacco. What was said of liquor could be said of tobacco. It 
could do them no good. That it did many harm went without say- 
ing. It was not long ago considered a nice habit for a gentleman. 
He had always admired the young lady who, when asked if she 
disliked gentlemen to smoke in her presence, replied that she 
didn't know ; no gentleman had ever tried. Many older men he 
knew wished they had not become slaves to the habit in their 
youth. 

''He had known some instances where men were able to con- 
quer the habit, but it was a severe trial. Smoking tobacco would 
do them no good, while it might become a habit which would en- 
slave them. Why should they run this risk ? In youth it was easy 
to abstain, but the appetite, once formed, it was not easy to break 
their chains. To young men having their living to make he ven- 
tured to suggest that it was also an expensive habit. Not seldom, 
he believed, the sum spent by a young man upon tobacco, if saved 
for twenty years at 5 per cent, compound interest, would give him 
a very nice nest egg in the bank. The principal point that could 
be urged against tobacco was that it had injured, and was injur- 
ing, many of their fellows from excessive use. Like most bad and 
seductive things, the line between use and abuse could rarely be 
maintained, and he said, therefore, about tobacco as he did about 
alcohol, there was danger in it — why not insure themselves ? 

"Life was a game which required them to equip themselves with 
every possible advantage to play it from scratch, and to strip 
themselves of every impediment that might hamper them in the 
race. There was no us in taking chances by becoming handi- 
capped by either the alcohol or tobacco habit." 



ONLY CLEAN POOR TO GET ATLANTIC'S ALMS. 

Applications for relief from the city's poor fund have been cut 
down one-half since Overseer Risely Barlow has issued an edict 
to the effect that evidence of the use of soap and water will be a 



238 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

qualification for those hereafter seeking help from his office. 

Barlow came into prominence a few weeks ago in beginning a 
campaign against drunken and indigent husbands whose impov- 
erished families the city has been compelled to support. "Go to 
work or go to jail," the Overseer told the slothful ones when they 
were hunted up by the police. Several are now on probation and 
one or two are "resting" behind the bars. 

This campaign, Overseer Barlow says, should be extended to 
include drunken mothers. 'We've got the fathers pretty well into 
line now," he says, *'but complaints are coming in by the score 
against drunken mothers, who neglect their children and spend 
the money their husbands earn for rum. 

"I scarcely knew how some people lived until I got this office. 
After investigating some of the complaints against drunken 
fathers, I certainly advocate the whipping post as the best manner 
of punishment for them." 

It is in his new reform that Barlow will probably win greatest 
fame. Investigation has shown that many who were securing 
city supplies were fakirs, and, for their elimination, the Overseer 
has hit upon a plan worthy of Solomon, 

"Go out and clean up, and then come back if you want any as- 
sistance from this office !" he has been telling applicants for the- 
last few days. "1 have decided that those really in want should 
be willing to wash up," he says, in relating his experience under 
the new rule. 

"Hereafter, only those whose faces look as if they had been 
near soap and water within a week, at least, will get any sympathy 
or alms here. 

"But, do you know, I have found people who are actually too 
lazy to wash their faces in order to get a square meal. That class 
had better steer clear of this office." 



INSANITY GROWING AT ALARMING PACE. 

"At Marshalsea the officials estimate that fully 25 per cent, of 
the inmates of the insane department lost their reason as a conse- 
quence of the misuse of alcoholic drinks. Fully 40 per cent, of the 
men and women in the insane ward of the Allegheny City Home 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 239 

went mad from the same cause, and at the Western Pennsylvania 
Hospital for the Insane the authorities say that in the majority of 
cases under their care alcohol has figured largely in producing de- 
mentia. 

''That drunkenness in Pittsburg is rapidly increasing each year 
is a certainty if police court records count as a basis. The recapit- 
ulations at Central Station each month show that of the many pris- 
oners lodged there the majority are charged with drunkenness and 
that this element increases in numbers each month. 

"Sergeant Thomas Morley said yesterday: 'The increase of 
drunks every month is enough to make a moralist or temperance 
advocate shudder. Though the number locked up here is appal- 
ling, it by no means represents all the drunks of the downtown dis- 
trict. I have never seen so many persons whose arrest is caused 
by intemperance habits as at the present time.' " 



POISON FOUND IN CANDY. 

Investigation by New Jersey's health authorities of the composi- 
tion of salt water taffy has been followed by notices served upon 
manufacturers of the adulterated stuff that prosecution will be 
commenced against them if the state authorities shall fail in the 
performance of their plain duty. 

The projected action follows close upon and is inspired by the 
prosecutions instituted in Pennsylvania by Dr. B. H. Warren^ 
head of the Dairy and Food Commission of that State. 

The findings by Special Agent H. P. Cassidy, of Dr. Warren's 
force, show that salt water taffy is the mere junk of the confec- 
tionery shops, which is bleached by poisonous sulphites, made 
tasteless by avazol, a chemical resolvent that is a powerful irritant, 
cheapened and sweetened by stomach irritating glucose instead of 
sugar, and colored with poisonous coal tar dyes. 

These revelations have stirred mightily the parents who have 
children at Atlantic City and have played havoc with the receipts 
of the taffy manufacturers. 

As thousands of children are brought there for the sake of their 
health, and salt water taffy has been considered, up to this time, an 



240 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

absolutely pure confection, and for that reason has been given to 
the children in almost unlimited quantities, the harm done by it 
has been considerable. 

Immense profits have been reaped by these manufacturers. They 
own some of the finest beach front properties in Atlantic City and 
in other towns. 

Of course, there is not a drop of salt water in the stufif that is 
sold for salt water tafify. With the noxious composition of glu- 
cose, avazol, coal tar dyes and kettle scrapings, it could be sold at 
a profit at 8 cents a pound. Yet the price charged is 25 to 50 cents 
a pound for the brilliant hued stufif — Camden Outlook. 



STOPS SELLING RUM, HE SAYS IS IMPURE, ON OLD 
MOTHER'S PLEA. 

For the first time in the nearly twenty years that the Brooks 
High License law has been in effect a petition to the License 
Court Judges has been filed by a licensed liquor dealer, asking 
that the Court revoke his license at once on the grounds that the 
trade has degenerated through impure liquors being sold and 
the traffic is responsible for untold hum_an misery. 

To the pleadings of his old mother he gives the reason for his 
action. 

In addition, the petitioner declares that the license granted him 
by the Court was not paid by him, but was paid by a firm, and 
that this firm has managed the business, received the profits and 
paid all expenses. 

The petitioner is Matthew M. Farrell, of 4539 Merion avenue. 
Less than two blocks away, on the southeast corner of Forty- 
seventh street and Lancaster avenue, is the liquor business that 
is conducted under Farrell's name on a license for which he 
swears he never paid. It is a wholesale place and the license was 
granted last March, when the Court announced the list for the 
year beginning last June. 

Farrell appeared before William W. Turner, deputy clerk of 
the License Court, on Saturdav and made affidavit to the state- 



TPIE TWENTIKTPI CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 24 1 

inents contained in the petition. He does not include the name 

of the firm he alleges paid for the license, but is is understood to 

be a large wholesale whisky firm. 

After stating he is not the real owner of the license and in no 

sense interested in the profits of the business, he declares he has 

conscientious scruples against further connection with the liquor 

traffic. Continuing, the petition says in part : 

The liquor trade has so degenerated that it is almost im- 
possible to purchase pure liquors. It is a crime to furnish 
cologne spirits and fusel oil to a man or woman who asks for 
whisky, and yet it is done. I can no longer permit my name 
to be connected with a business which distributes such poison- 
ous potions, as there can be no doubt that many of the cases 
^here men and women have been found dead have come to 
their death through patronizing saloons selling the vile con- 
coctions under the guise of liquor. 

Again, I further object to having my name connected with 
a business which takes from human beings not only their 
money, but their will power and their reason, and leaves them 
abandoned or ruined wrecks for all time and eternity. 

I further object to longer being a party to a business which 
■causes so much suffering and misery in the homes of this city. 
It is a fact, which must be taken as a verity, that more crimes 
are traceable to the rum business, and more sorrowing, 
heartbroken wives and children, mothers and fathers, are due 
to the vile drinks than to any or all other causes. 

Your petitioner therefore prays that the said liquor license 
granted to him for the year beginning June i, 1905, be re- 
voked. Your petitioner's sense of justice and common hon- 
esty and his conscience, will not permit him longer to be a 
party to a business so surrounded with trouble, deception and 
corruption. 
Farrell was seen yesterday at his home in Merion avenue and 

asked to explain the unusual petition. The home is a modest two- 

^tory house. Farrell is about 45 years old. He said: 

"There is nothing more to say at this time, but I will be ready 

to answer any questions the Court may ask when the petition is 

presented to it." 



242 run TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

LIKES TORREY'S MESSAGE. 

To the Editor of The North American. 

''Torrey's Message to the People of Philadelphia" in your issue 
this morning is the right gospel. 

Now let every one examine himself and herself and set to right 
the wrongs they are committing. 

We do not need to fling stones at an Ohio Rockefeller or the 
New York Astors, Vanderbilts or any others so long as Pennsyl- 
vania is cursed with too many wealthy (?) families who have 
stolen and robbed their fellowman right and left. 

It is not more children the working man needs, but more money 
to properly educate and care for the ones he now has. 

Race suicide is only among the rich — those women who wish 
to run to "functions" and let their husbands find the kind of 
women that suit them best. 

Let us hope that soon our women will become sensible and have 
something better than dogs to burden their arms. Let every one 
begin to pay what he owes, and so the working man can live and 
enjoy the fruits of his labor. M. W. 

Harrisburg, Pa., February i. 



WHENCE THEY CAME AND WHAT THEY BROUGHT. 

Between 1871 and 1894, inclusive, 2,380,792 Germans emigrated 
to the United States. Of the million who landed in this country 
last year 36,000 adults came from England, 21,000 having $50 
each; only 15,000 had less than $50. The Scotch who had more 
than $50 numbered 5,700 ; the remaining 6,200 had less than $50. 
Of the French immigrants 5,000 had more than $50, and 3,300 
less. Next to the English the largest number with more than $50 
came from Germany; 18,000 of them supplied with that much 
came last year. Altogether the immigrants brought $20,000,000 
last year. Of the Italian new comers 15,000 had more than $50 
each, and 175,000 had less. Of the Irish 7,000 had more than $50 ; 
38,000 less. Of the Hungarians and Slovaks 3,000 had more, 80,- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 01^ REASON. 243. 

000 less than $50. Among the Russians there were only 600 with 
more than $50, and there were 15,000 with less. Twenty-five hun- 
dred Poles had more than $50, and 82,000 had less. The way that 
most of the immigrants can live makes $50 quite a large sum to 
start with. 



FATHER DOES IT. 

He was ten years old and it was his first offense. He had been- 
kept in the house by the influenza, while his brother with the nurse 
had gone to the park to play, and he was lonely, for his mother 
had told him not to disturb her. Thus did temptation overtake 
him. He smoked one of his father's cigars — proudly, happily at 
first ; less so after a time, and pretty soon he was — yes, he was 
going to die ! With this awful consciousness stirring in his stom- 
ach, in his soul surged the no less awful certainty that, dying so, 
he could not hope to go to heaven. He was a religious little boy 
on Sundays ; and at Sunday School and Church did not the teacher 
and preacher set forth 'precisely where all those who die in sin 
must go? 

He wiped the cold sweat from about his mouth, got down on 
his knees and prayed. He felt that he was even then passing away 
— passing away in what agony ! — and he prayed hard : 

''Dear God, please don't let me die and I'll be good ; I'll never 
smoke again. Please don't let me die." Then in the blackness of 
the loathsome night that, spreading from a centre within his stom- 
ach was enveloping his whole being, the thought came to him to 
go and die outside the door of his mother's room. No, he would 
not disturb her; he would just die there — die as he had lived, obe- 
dient except for that one awful thing that was killing him. It 
was very sad — his sufferings, his situation, and what was to come 
after. He began to sob. When his mother, attracted by a queer 
noise, opened the door — it was nothing; he was just dying because 
— O ! would she please forgive him ? He had smoked one of fath- 
er's cigars. 

After he was feeling better, mother thought that the opportunity 
should not go neglected; she should impress upon him the evils 



244 ^"^^ TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

of smoking, while within his being he was experiencing real con- 
viction of the truth. So she spoke to him very solemnly, very elo- 
quently — very well, indeed ; the speech would have earned her loud 
applause in any mothers' club. And in conclusion she said, "Now, 
my dear little boy, you have learned what a vile and wretched 
thing it is to smoke, and I hope you will never, never do it in all 
your life again." 

"That's so, but" — still white and very feeble, he pulled himself 
up bravely — "I s'pose I'll have to get used to it ; father does it !" 

There behold the one clear gauge of the boy's endeavor — what 
father does. Mothers' clubs may make motions divine in wisdom 
and in goodness ; mothers' congresses may form all elements of 
virtue into laws ; mothers individually in the home may talk, work, 
struggle, to make their sons models by which to shape a new 
heaven and a new earth. But the boy's world is in the man who is 
his father, and the boy believes that whatever may be right on Sun- 
days or at prayer time, the things that are really good, that really 
count in life, are what father does. Moreover, it is what father 
does which defines the means with which the boy shall work, the 
sphere wherein his efforts shall be shaped. In a word, what father 
does is the beginning as it is the end of the boy's achievements. 
This is not a menace, either, to the mother's higher aims or to the 
boy's best endeavor. It is simply of the rather neglected facts of 
human experience. — Harper's Basaar. 



THE COST OF WAR. 

The terrible cost of war looked at from its lowest level, the 
money, is beginning to be felt. The nations are in a race for great 
armies and costly battleships. The chairman of the House com- 
mittee in presenting its report providing for a 20,000-ton battle- 
ship to cost $10,000,000, said in his speech : 

"Only recently England condemned seventy of her naval vessels 
and sent them to the scrap pile. We have under construction to- 
day thirty vessels of all classes with a displacement of 384,730 
tons, or more than fifty per cent, of the displacement of our pres- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 245; 

ent navy, and that construction will not be completed until 1910 
or 1912. On account of previous wars we are expending this year 
$175,957,638; the amount we are expending this year in anticipa- 
tion of war is $199,702,081. These two amounts form a total ex- 
penditure during the fiscal year of $375,659,719. This means that 
we are expending this year for wars past and in preparation for 
wars to come 63M per cent, of the total revenue of the Government 
outside of the postal revenue." 

The official statement of the cost of maintenance of the vessels 
of each type now in the service during the fiscal year 1905 is as 
follows : 

First-class battleships $634,255 

Second-class battleships 468,729 

Armored cruisers 489,206 

Protected cruisers 395,624 

Monitors 209,273 

Gunboats ( 1,710 tons) 175,420 

Gunboats (1,187 tons) 133,3 14 

Gunboats (1,000 tons) 1 17,860 

Torpedoboat destroyers 81,674 

Torpedoboats, estimated 34,ooo 

Submarine torpedoboats 29,879 

Three good colleges could be maintained for what it costs to 
maintain one battleship. The amount expended on one gunboat 
would maintain the whole foreign mission service of the Reformed 
Dutch Church in America for one year. Two second-class battle- 
ships cost as much to maintain last year as the Presbyterian Church 
spent in domestic missions. It cost more to maintain one torpedo- 
boat destroyer than was spent on the saving spiritually, morally 
and physically of the merchant seamen of New York. And as 
much for one submarine torpedoboat as was spent by the Ameri- 
can Seamen's Friend Society for the maintenance of its thirty-four 
auxiliary societies. 

So we might go on making comparisons that at least would pro- 
voke thought. Our business as a society is to make these vessels 
of war and every other vessel on the sea floating Bethels, whose 



246 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

crews will go forth to the ends of the earth carrying the benedic- 
tions of the cross. ''How beautiful upon the mountains are the 
feet of Him that bringeth good tidings of peace * "^ * * and the 
work of righteousness ; and the effect of righteousness, quietness 
and confidence forever." — Sailors' Magazine. 



FIFTEEN YEARS AGO. 

BY J. S. HOIvDEN. 

I wandered to the grog-shop, Tom, I stood beside the bar, 
And drank a bowl of lemonade and smoked a bad cigar; 
The same old kegs and jugs were there, the ones we used to know 
When we were on the round-up, Tom, some fifteen years ago. 
I asked about our old-time friends, those cherished sporty men, 

And some were in the poor-house, Tom, and some were in the pen; 
And one, the one we liked the best, the hangman laid him low; 
The world is much the same, dear Tom, as fifteen years ago. 

Now crowds line up against the bar, and call for crimson ink; 
New hands are trembling as they pour the stuff they shouldn't drink; 
But still the same old watchword rings, "This round's on me, you know." 
The same old cry of doom we heard some fifteen years ago. 

I wandered to the churchyard, Tom, and there I saw the graves 
Of those who used to drown themselves in red fermented waves; 
And there were women sleeping there, where grass and daisies grow, 
Who wept and died of broken hearts some fifteen years ago. 

And there were graves where children slept, have slept for many a ytSir, 
Forgetful of the woes that marked their fitful sojourn here; 
And 'neath a tall, white monument, in death there lieth low, 
The man who used to sell the booze some fifteen years ago. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 247 

AN AMUSING TRIP TO THE SEASHORE. 

On my arrival I went to the hotel and after a short rest, called 
on a friend, whose porch was on a public street. While sitting 
there my attention was attracted by the numerous smokers. I 
should judge that three-quarters of all the men that passed were 
smoking. 

Presently an old friend of mine came along by the name of 
Smith, for whom I had just inquired about from my acquaintance 
sitting near, as to whether he still resided in the city. His reply 
was : "There he comes now." He halted, and I remarked that he 
must be well loaded with electricity, as I was just thinking of him 
and he replied with. the familiar saying: "Think of the Old Boy 
and you will find him near." 

As it is my usual custom to have some small tracts, I gave him 
one, at the same time remarking, "Do you use tobacco?" He said, 
"No, only when I have to." 

This remark called forth a query and an explanation, which he 
gave saying: "There is scarcely a place where I mingle with men 
but what I am compelled to inhale the fumes of tobacco, and never 
was so disgusted with those who use tobacco in my life as at the 
present time." He further stated "That some men do not have 
respect to desist from smoking when they meet to see about bury- 
ing the dead." I inferred from this that he must belong to some 
fraternal order. 

In addition to saying many other things regarding the filthy 
habit, I saw that he was more capable of denouncing it than I was 
and gave him the right of way. 

Presently my attention was attracted by a young lady accom- 
panied by two gentlemen, one on either side, who were profusely 
smoking and at the same time trying to show her much attention. 

Soon after this I noticed a young gentleman who had two young 
ladies with him, one on either side. They were also trying to do 
justice to him in the way of entertainment by jolly conversation, 
and one might have been led to think that he was the son of a mil- 
lionaire from the attention he was receiving. 

It was evident that the young man was not much accustomed 
to cigars from the way in which he held it in his mouth and car- 



248 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

ried it in his fingers, and had only procured it for the occasion. In 
his efforts to pay due attention to each of the young ladies with 
him, I was reminded of the story of the young man who became 
cross-eyed in endeavoring to make love to two young ladies at the 
same time. 

On my return trip I was amused for awhile at some of the pas- 
sengers in the car. Upon taking my seat I precumed that I was in 
a mixed car, as there were several ladies already seated. Pres- 
ently, however, I noticed a man light a cigar and begin blowing 
the smoke out of the window. I suppose he did so out of respect 
for the ladies in the car. In a few moments another man lit his 
pipe ; he too blew the smoke out of the window. 

In a few moments the train stopped at another street station 
and took on some more men. They soon began to strike matches, 
light pipes and cigars that they might smoke and appease their ap- 
petite. The next stop the train made, a number of men boarded 
who had evidently spent their day's outing in fishing. They com- 
pletely filled the car. Before going much further I think every- 
one was smoking excepting the ladies and myself. Some used the 
corn-cob, others a meerschaum, while others smoked cigars. 

On the seat in front of me sat a man who had apparently been 
indulging during the day in something stronger than tobacco, and 
from the fumes in my immediate vicinity, one would suppose that 
there were many others who had done likewise. As I was seated 
in the rear end of the car I received the full benefit of the odor. 
Not being accustomed to such a combination of tobacco and 
whiskey, in addition to the smell of the fish being emitted from 
the many baskets of fish, it was more than my olfactory nerves 
could stand, and I began to look around to see where I could make 
an exit, which I soon did, thereby finding much relief, but my lit- 
tle experience caused me to wonder why there are so many people 
endeavoring to obtain happiness in the way they do. 

We know it is natural to seek pleasure in various ways, fishing, 
gunning, etc., but why a man should at the same time take along 
a flask of whisky or a bag of tobacco, or both, to help add to these 
pleasures, is more than I can comprehend. But after indulging in 
these so-called luxuries during the whole day, when they get in 
the car they continue to repeat the same performance. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 249 

To one who has not contracted the habit, it is at first amusing 
to see such actions that man will go through in the attempt to find 
relief and then call it pleasure. But on reflection, a careful ob- 
server and thinker will come to a sense of pity that they are put 
to so much trouble to secure what they call pleasure, when three- 
quarters of those who are committing these acts to their body 
would gladly leave off the use of these narcotics. We know there 
are many who make the attempt to get rid of the same, but find 
it as difiicult to free themselves as it would be of some other dis- 
ease which they might contract. 

It was also amusing to see the young man walking between the 
two ladies, endeavoring to manipulate the cigar, which he had 
evidently secured for the occasion, hoping to add dignity to his 
physique, and the ladies were apparently showing all signs of ap- 
preciation for him. But if the true sentiments of their hearts were 
to be expressed, they would indeed appreciate the young man more 
without the additional roll of tobacco. 

When these peculiar conditions arise with human nature, and 
they are both unnatural and obnoxious, does it not seem that there 
is a greater need in these days for an interpreter as when, in the 
days of old, Joseph was called to interpret Pharoah's dream. It 
is very evident the whole nation is asleep to the evil effects of 
habit. While there are many who are fully aware of their ravages 
they are powerless to know how to co-operate with the many mil- 
lions of mothers, in their homes, who have sons and daughters, 
that the mother may be taught the importance of instructing her 
daughter, that instead of wooing a young man who will blow 
tobacco smoke into her face, she should resent such impolite 
actions with contempt as the highest breach of etiquette. But if 
all the fathers and mothers of this nation are to continue in being 
derelict in their duties regarding these habits, it will take more 
than a Moses to lead our nation out of the bondage of habit. 

Unless a more general education along the lines of restrictmg 
these narcotic habits is made and enforced, to some extent, and 
the facts impressed upon the minds of the young people of the 
present, as well as the coming posterity, we will simply be follow- 
ing out the language of the Scriptures, where we are told that 
"The blind leadeth the blind, and both fall into the ditch." 

W. C. H. 

17 



250 the; twentieth century age oe reason. 

HAS THE PROHIBITORY LAW BEEN OF FINANCIAL 
ADVANTAGE TO THE STATE OF MAINE? 

In 1850, when our prohibitory law went into effect, we had in 
our state five savings banks, the total amount on deposit bein^ 
$90,000. The anual report of our bank examiner for 1906 affords 
the following statistics : Number of savings banks in the state, 
51; amount of deposits, $87,923,115. Number of trust compan- 
ies, 26, with a capital of $29,895,672. Number of loan and bank- 
ing associations, 35, with a capital of $3,263,765. Total, $121,- 
082,552. 

In 1850, the population of Maine was 583,169. In 1900, 694,- 
466. The increase in population during the last fifty years was 
only 111,297, while the amount of money saved and put out at in- 
terest the past fifty-six years increased over $121,000,000 — over 
one million dollars to every one thousand inhabitants. The in- 
crease of money placed on interest from 1903 to 1906 was $23,- 
338,166. 

The number of depositors in our savings banks alone January 
I, 1905, was 258,363, and if the stockholders in trust companies 
be added to the above, the number equals one-half of the popula- 
tion of Maine. 

The average of deposits in the savings banks alone is $117 per 
capita. In 1850 it was less than $6.50 per capita. These institu- 
tions contribute nearly one-fourth of the revenue of the state. 
The total banking capital is forty-four per cent, or nearly one-half 
of the entire assessed valuation of the state. 

When we think that by far the largest number of depositors in 
savings banks are working people and those of limited means, and 
then think of the amount invested in bonds, stocks and real estate 
among those who labor at day's pay (for thousands of the labor- 
ing men own their little homes), and remember that this money, 
were it not for our prohibitory law, might have been spent at the 
saloons, we ought to praise God for the prohibitory law and the 
prosperity of our state. 

Is there any license state of the size of Maine in the Union, that 
can show such a record? For while the population of the state 
has increased only twenty per cent, the past fifty-six years, its val- 
uation has inccreased over 252 per cent. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE O^ REASON. 25 1 

Thousands of young men have left their native state of Maine 
and gone to the larger cities and to the West, so that the popula- 
tion has increased very little since 1850, and the twenty per cent, 
of increase comes largely from the foreigners (mostly Canadians) 
wiio have come to work in the cotton mills of Biddeford, Lewis- 
ton, and other milling centers. In spite of this, we have an in- 
crease of from $90,000 deposited in savings banks in 1850 to the 
more than $82,000,000 in 1904. The amount of dividends paid in 
1904 from the fifty-one savings banks of Maine was $2,435,647.19. 
What has done it? PROHIBITION! 

The great cry among those interested in the liquor business all 
over the country is, ''Prohibition in Maine does not prohibit: 
therefore, we want a high-license law, instead of the prohibitory 
law." 

Query: If our prohibitory law does not prohibit, why are the 
liquor interests all over the land pouring their money and litera- 
ture into our state to have that law repealed ? 

The flag of prohibition has waved over our state for over fifty 
years. Emblazoned on it is the state motto, "Dirigo" — 'T lead," 
and we pray that no traitor hands shall ever haul it down. — J. G. 
Harvey, (Old Orchard). 



HOW LICENSE WORKS IN VERMONT. 

One of the chief workers in the campaign against the prohibi- 
tory law of Vermont which resulted in its repeal, was Mr. Joseph 
C. Jones, of Ruthland, secretary of the Local Option League. 
With the repeal of the prohibitory law and the enactment of a 
license law, Rutland promptly voted for license. 

Mr. Jones has since experienced a change of heart on this im- 
portant subject, and his reasons therefor are set forth in a letter 
to the editor of the St. Johnsbury Caledonian, from which we 
quote : 

"Dear Sir: — I am in receipt of your letter asking me to set 
forth a few reasons why I favor no license for Rutland. I have 
always been an advocate of local option and did some work in the 
campaign to bring about the present system. I voted for license 
because I believed that even a license policy would work better 



252 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

in Rutland than absolute prohibition. I am constrained to admit 
that my expectations have not been realized. In the face of the 
most flagrant violations of law and demoralizing conditions re- 
sulting from the saloon there is but one alternative, and that is to 
reverse our action and vote for no license. 

"The number of arrests for intoxication during the first nine 
months of license, as compared with the preceding year, increased 
nearly 500 per cent. A large number of intoxicated persons are 
able to elude the police and escape arrest by seeking refuge on 
side streets and dark alleys. It is no uncommon thing to find a 
drunken man "resting'' in the front yard. An extra policeman is 
on duty at the police station to answer telephone calls in this class 
of cases. While the number of arrests have increased nearly five 
to one the number of intoxicated persons seen on our streets has 
increased ten fold. One of our policemen made the remark in 
my presence that if he should arrest every intoxicated man he saw 
he would be arresting five men where now he only arrests one. A 
business man told me that heretofore he had been able to save 
$300 to $400 annually from his small business. During the first 
nine months of license he not only failed to save anything, but 
spent several hundred dollars from the savings of previous years. 
He spent it in the saloons. The other night a young man was car- 
ried out of a saloon in an ossified condition. It required the help 
of four men to place him in the hack. The rumseller claimed he 
did not get the liquor in his place, that he was in that condition 
when he came in. If that is so, it must have required the help of 
four men to land him there. Ladies who are compelled to do 
shopping at night or desire to make a call on friends dare not re- 
turn to their homes without an escort for fear of insult or injury 
from drunken men. A young man who took the Keeley Cure 
twelve years ago and had not touched a drop of liquor during that 
time, has hardly drawn a sober breath since the saloon was opened. 
The saloon keepers have been notified time and again not to sell 
to him, but they ignore all sense of decency in respect to this 
young man. 

This is but one instance. I could mention others. Two lumber- 
men from an adjoining town went into one of our bar rooms in an 
intoxicated condition and against the protest of an onlooker were 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 253 

furnished drinks until they became so beastly intoxicated that they 
were carried out like so many logs, placed in their sleighs and left 
to get home the best way they could. Complaints have been made, 
but no action has ever been taken. Old moderate drinkers under 
prohibition have become excessive drinkers. Young men who 
were fairly clean and abstemious under the old law are now fre- 
quenting saloons and have been reeling through our streets ; some 
of them have lost good positions. In some of the saloons women 
sit down at the tables and drink the same as men. This was un- 
heard of under the old system. Merchants are complaining about 
poor collections. Those I have talked with lay the blame on the 
saloon. Even barber shops find it hard to collect cash for a ten 
cent shave. One barber told me that the ten and twenty-five cent 
pieces, instead of coming to him, go to the saloons. 

"I have undertaken to give a few plain facts and reasons why 
the saloon is a menace to our city No sane man, whatever his 
predilections, who has had his eyes open can honestly deny a sin- 
gle statement I have made, and none I dare say, can conscien- 
tiously defend the present conditions. 

"License has been and is a dismal failure in Rutland and I am 
in favor of no license henceforth." — Advocate of License. 



BRITISH RUM TRADE. 

The rum trade, with its £230,000,000 to £300,000,000 of capital, 
is the most powerful and wealthy trade in England, and yet it 
gives employment proportionately to its receipts to a smaller num- 
ber of people than any other of the great trades dealing with food 
and drink, says the London Strand. 

Its enormous interests are concentrated in fewer hands, and 
the bulk of its profits, notwithstanding the existence of a number 
of brewing concerns as limited liability companies, are spread 
over a smaller part of the community than in the case of any other 
great purveying trade in the country. 

The explanation of this lies in the fact that although many of 
the shares of the companies have been offered for public subscrip- 
tion, the great bulk of the ordinary shares are generally retained 



254 '^^^^ TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

in private hands and are not quoted on the exchange. Of 119 
brewery and distillery companies quoted on the London Stock Ex- 
change, having a share and debenture capital of over £70,000,000, 
more than two-thirds do not show any ordinary shares. Out of 
some 36,000,000 barrels of beer at least 12,000,000 barrels, or one- 
third of the whole, were brewed by only twenty brewers. 

In the typical workman's budget drink is an important item. 
The yearly sum spent on alcoholic drink in the United Kingdom 
amounts to £189,000,000, or an average of over £4 per head of the 
population. 

There are in the country 24,000,000 consumers, who spend on 
an average over £7 per head. 

Two-thirds of the national drink bill is spent by the working 
classes alone. That is to say, the working classes, representing 
32,000,000 persons — or about 6,500,000 families — spend not less 
than £116,500,000 a year (deducting £14,000,000 for wine, which 
they do not drink) on alcoholic liquor, an average for each work- 
ing class family of £18 4s. in a year, or 7 shillings a week. 

In 1897 the number of licenses in the metropolitan police dis- 
tricts of London, with a population of 6,500,000, amounted to a 
little over 10,000, or one to 618 people. 

The wages of the i8,ooo barmen and barmaids, who, with over 
5,000 cellar men and women, account for over 23,000 out of 38,- 
000 people employed in the drink trade, are at a very modest rate, 
although the hours are extremely long. The barmen's net wages 
vary from 8s. 6d. to i8s. 6d. a week, with board and lodging, 
while the barmaids' rate of pay is, no doubt, considerably lower. 

Of the men employed in breweries, 66 per cent, earn less than 
30 shillings a week, 34 per cent, earning 30 shillings and over. 
In the grocery trade the general average of adult males receiving 
30 shillings per week and over is 355^ per cent. 

In the butchers' and fishmongers' trades 40 per cent, of adult 
males earn 30 shillings per week and upward, while in the bakers' 
and allied trades 42 per cent, obtain those wages. 



ALCOHOL KILLING FRANCE. 
The famous expert on alcoholism, Doctor Lowenthal, has re- 
cently published a sensational article regarding the cause of the 
depopulation of France. Doctor Lowenthal maintains that the de- 



the; twentieth century age of reason. 255 

population is due to the abuse of alcohol, which has in latter years 
increased the death rate to an enormous degree. 

He goes on to say that to alcoholism are due every year in 
France over 200,000 deaths, and at least 500,000 annually become 
addicted to drink, which eventually results in premature death. 

He also points out that the liberal use of alcohol in France un- 
dermines the health of the population and makes it more suscepti- 
ble to the epidemics. Scarlet and typhoid fevers, smallpox, etc., 
which are gradually disappearing in Germany, England, Sweden 
and Norway, Holland and Belgium, are not only not stationary in 
France, but have increased alarmingly in latter years. 



THE PROHIBITIONISTS FOR REFORM. 

Wenonah, N. J., August 18, 1906. 
Editor North American, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Dear Sir : — In reading your article yesterday on "The Prohibi- 
tionists and Reform," I felt that you failed to appreciate the atti- 
tude of many of your readers upon this question, and that a peep 
into the psychological processes of a prohibitionist would likely 
be of interest to you and many of your readers. Please consider 
the publication of the following: 

Prohibitionists have not failed to be impressed with the numer- 
ous articles, your own editorial of Friday included, by advocates 
of Fusion, in which the third party members are attacked for not 
falling in line with the reform movement. It is repeatedly stated 
that "a vote for the Prohibition party is a vote for the Gang." 
This is the same logic upon which we might remark that, failing to 
vote according to our sympathies, a vote for Fusion is a vote for 
the Gang, or that a vote for the Gang is a vote for Fusion. The 
fallacy of your reasoning rests in the supposition that the Prohibi- 
tion party has drawn its recruits largely from the parties which 
are now fusing, and that were it not for the obstacle of the Prohi- 
bition ticket, all would crowd under the Fusion banner of "re- 
form." The young voter's first party allegience is more a matter 
of birth than of reason, and when a man, disgusted with the atti- 
tude of his party toward the liquor question bolts into the Prohibi- 
tion ranks, he is as likely to come from one direction as another, 



256 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

and each party of faction loses only in proportion to its strength. 

The policy of the Prohibition party's hiring out for all odd jobs 
of reform is questionable. It has for years stood for a reform 
which enlightened citizens concede quite generally would be of 
great advantage to our country ; why have not the thousands of 
those who believed thus assisted us to accomplish it? Why did 
not the reform fusion parties place in nomination a man pledged 
to principles in harmony with the views of Prohibitionists upon 
the liquor question? Then you would have had our hearty sup- 
port. No, the argument runs thus : The liquor interests cannot 
be gotten to stand upon a prohibitory platform ; but temperance 
men generally will cling to the old party to help it to "defeat the 
rascals, just this one, critical time," and thus the author, the pro- 
fessor, the deacon, and as a rule, the minister, casts a ballot which, 
when in the box, could not be distinguished from that of the 
saloonkeeper, and often the grafter, the gambler, and the thug! 
The justification plea of these eminently respectable gentlemen is 
that the Prohibitionists cannot win, and because they cannot get 
what they want, they vote for and get that which they do not want 
— the perpetuation of the liquor traffic. So long as professional 
politicians can corral both temperance men and liquor men upon 
a liquor platform, and so long as the liquor men will not be driven 
upon a temperance platform, just so long will the tail wag the 
dog ! Oh, Christian voters, do you not know that you greatly out- 
number those whose interests lie in the saloon, and that just so 
soon as you demand what you want you can have it? No reform 
can be of real permanent value so long as it is secured and admin- 
istered by a party dominated by the rum power, which is con- 
stantly requiring "restrictions" and "enforcements," and is still 
the greatest infractor of all law. 

The defeat of the Fusion parties would, I doubt not, be gener- 
ally regretted by those who felt constrained to vote the third party 
ticket; but if the defeat of the Fusionists and the success of the 
Gang were clearly brought about by the withdrawal of the Prohi- 
bitionists, probably this in itself would be a most potent force 
toward the establishing of permanent .and comprehensive reform 
conditions. 



THE TWE:NTII5TH CEJNTURY age 0^ REASON. 257 

Just so soon as the old parties are taught that to prefer the 
Hquor vote to that of those who demand the aboHtion of the saloon 
means defeat, just so soon will prohibition be ushered in with its 
attendant train of blessings, a condition which can be appreciated 
only by those who, as I, have lived much of my life in prohibition 
territory. 

Respectfully, 

Geo. O. Swartz. 



"SHOULD A WOMAN MARRY A MAN WHO DRTNKS?" 

The answer to this question decides the weal or woe of a life- 
time. 

The man who drinks before marriage seldom reforms, but be- 
comes a slave to his appetite. Either irritable and quarrelsome, 
or silly and ridiculous, he is a menace or a mortification to wife 
and children. To remain strong and healthy a man must violate 
no law of nature. The man who drinks takes into his system alco- 
hol, which, science tells us, is a slow poison, stimulating brain and 
heart, with a constant reaction and loss of vitality. Its continued 
use destroys mental, moral and physical power. Revolting and 
brutal crimes are the result of the drink habit. No woman has a 
right to choose for the father of her children one who cannot give 
perfect physical life. Alcohol users beget imperfect, frail, even 
degenerate children. A woman who marries a man who drinks, 
wilfully chooses to ruin her life and to entail on innocent offspring 
the consequences of her weakness. 

A drinking man cannot retain the respect of a refined woman ; 
bis presence disgusts her, and children born will despise the father. 
Association with evil contaminates the innocent ; the woman will 
sink to the level of the husband, or must escape by leaving him. 
Either course is fatal to the home and happiness of both parents 
and children. 

A woman's life is inextricably bound up with that of her hus- 
band, and only the highest degree of purity and virtue in both can 
make marriage a holy tie. Happiness rests on confidence, and re- 
spect is the foundation of love. Can a woman respect a man who, 
by yielding to a gross appetite, weakens his will, beclouds his 
brain and loses control of his body ? 



258 the: twentieth century age of reason. 

Life may be full of content and happiness without either love or 
marriage. Better live a sweet, pure single woman to old age than 
accept the sorrow and degredation that lasts until death parts you 
from a drinking man. — Mary S. Wright, Camden, N. J. 



DIVORCES. 

Ohio is one of the few States which annually publish statistics 
of divorce. According to the figures furnished by the statistician 
of the Department of State, a total of 11,746 divorce cases was on 
the dockets of the Ohio courts on June 30, 1904. The total num- 
ber of decrees granted during the year was 4124. The figures are 
not startling in view of the freedom with which divorces are 
granted in the United States, but they are in striking contrast with 
the divorce statistics of Canada, where much stricter ideas respect- 
ing the preservation of the marriage contract prevail. The causes 
for which absolute decrees of divorce are granted in Ohio are not 
more numerous than those to be found on the statute books of 
most of the States, so that the Ohio divorce statistics are fairly 
typical of the gefieral laxity of American laws on this important 
subject. 

The population of Ohio in 1900 was 4,157,545. In 1901 the 
population of Canada was 5,371,315. From 1868 to 1904 the total 
number of divorces granted in the Dominion by act of Parliament 
was 356, and there were 9 separations granted by the courts. The 
total for 1904 was only 19. In the 21 years ending in 1893 there 
were 135 Canadian divorces. Of these, 94 were granted in Nova 
Scotia and New Brunswick, where the courts and not the Legis- 
lature have jurisdiction. In 1901 there were only 661 divorced 
persons living in Canada. This was 12 for every 100,000 of pop- 
ulation. In the United States in 1900 there were 199,868 divorced 
persons. 

Ohio increased its divorced population by 8248 in a single year. 
That State shows one divorce for every nine marriages. The' 
divorce evil is increasing there rapidly. In 1870 there was i di- 
vorce to 25 marriages ; in 1890, i to 15. Comparison with the sta- 
tistics of some of the European countries is disquieting. In 1900^ 
France granted 7157 divorces. Belgium in 1901 had i divorce- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 259 

to every 41 marriages. Germany in 1901 granted 8037 separa- 
tions. England and Wales granted only 398 in 1891, and Italy 
591. The ratio of divorces to marriages in Switzerland is about I 
to 22, the highest in Europe, and about the same as that of Massa- 
chusetts. Russia had 1200 divorces in 1885. In certain South 
American countries divorces are difficult to obtain. Thus, in 
Buenos Ayres only 118 were granted in 1894. 



DEATHS AMONG DRINKERS AND NON-DRINKERS. 

(From statistics compiled by life insurance actuaries). 

Drinkers. — In 36 years, 11,241. Between the ages of 20 and 
70, 57,891. Between the ages of 40 and 50, 10,861. 

Abstainers. — In the 36 years, 6,300. Between the ages of 20 
and 70, 46,956. Between the ages of 40 and 50, 6,246. 

The last figures show an excess of 74 per cent. Between the 
ages of 20 and 30 it was 1 1 per cent. ; from 30 to 40, 68 per cent. ; 
from 50 to 60, 42per cent. ; and from 60 to 70, 19 per cent. The 
period from 40 to 50 is regarded by the insurance men as the 
"prime of life." 



A NEW CATECHISM. 

What is the chief law-breaker of the land ? 

The bar-room. 

Where are the schemes hatched which promote civic corrup- 
tion ? 

In the bar-room. 

Where does the midnight assassin go to prepare for his mur- 
derous work? 

To the bar-room. 

Where do the police go in search of the skulking thief or mur- 
derer ? 

To the bar-room. 

What lays its hands upon political parties and dictates who shall 
be nominated and elected? 

The bar-room. 



26o THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

What impoverishes the industrious workman and fills him with 
the spirit of discontent? 

The bar-room. 

What takes the bread from the mouths of starving children? 

The bar-room. 

What clothes with rags women raised in refinement and afflu- 
ence? 

The bar-room. 

What despoils young manhood and sends it reeling and stag- 
gering down the street? 

The bar-room. 

What crowds our prisons to their utmost limit ? 

The bar-room. 

Wliat peoples almshouses and insane asylums with pitiable ob- 
jects. 

The bar-room. — Pioneer. 



THE MORMON PERIL. 

There's a hydra-headed monster, with a much lamented power. 

That is roaming through our country, "seeking whom he may devour." 

'Tis the shameless Mormon evil, with its wickedness untold ; 

'Tis a spider, which the petals of a lily, white, enfold. 

'Tis a wolf that, in sheep's clothing, searches for its human prey; 

It is worthy of the loathing it is meeting with to-day ; 
For 'tis founded on the basest of humanity's desires. 
And is fostered and promoted with a zeal that never tires. 

Shall this element of danger longer threaten us with harm? 

Could we see a burning building without sounding the alarm? 
Shall the maniford petitions from the mountainside and plain, 
And the warnings from the pulpit and the press be ail in vain? 

No ! We'll stem this tide of evil by a firm, decided stand ; 

We will yet avenge this insult to the women of our land. 

Strengthened by a noble purpose — our loved country to defend, 
We will fight the Mormon peril, yes, unto the bitter end. 

Washington, D. C. E. G. QUACKENBUSH. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 26 1 

CATHOLIC CENSUS OF UNITED STATES. 

From the advance sheets of the official Catholic Directory, pub- 
lished in IMilwaukee, it is found that the total Catholic population 
of the United States is 12,651,944, an increase of 189,151 over the 
previous year. The total number of Catholic priests, including 
seculars and regulars, is 14,484, an increase of 627. 

There are in the United States one Papal Delegate, one cardinal, 
fourteen archbishops, ninety bishops and twenty-one abbots. The 
majority of the clergy are seculars, there being 10,789 secular 
priests and 3695 regulars, who are members of religious orders. 
The total number of Catholic churches in the United States is ti,- 
814, an increase of 427 over the previous year. There are 86 
seminaries for ecclesiastical students. 

1,066,207 CHII.DREN. 

The number of children attending Catholic parochial schools 
has increased to 1,666,207, an increase of almost 35,000, there be- 
ing 4281 parochial schools, listed. The children who are under- 
Catholic care, including those in orphan asylums, number 1,229,- 
668. There are 869 institutions of higher education, and the total 
number of Catholic charitable institutions is 997. In addition to 
the secular clergy there are forty religious orders of priests rep- 
resented in the United States, the principal ones being the Jesuits, 
Benedictines, Capuchins, Franciscans, Dominicans, Holy Cross 
Fathers, Paulists, Redemptorists and Oblates. Representatives of 
122 sisterhoods are engaged in teaching in the country. 

The archdioceses of New York and Chicago are each rated as 
having 1,200,000 Catholic inhabitants. In this count the village 
and suburban towns also are included. It must be taken into con- 
cern, however, that the archdiocese of New York does not em- 
brace the city of Brooklyn, which is a diocese itself. Boston fol- 
lows with a Catholic population of 700,000, while the diocese of 
Brooklyn is fourth with 500,000. 

PHILADELPHIA COMES ElETH. 

The archdiocese of Philadelphia is fifth with 485,000, and the 
archdiocese of New Orleans sixth, with a population of 450,000, 
while the diocese of Pittsburg, archdiocese of St. Louis, diocese 



262 the: twe;ntieth century age oi'' reason. 

of Cleveland, diocese of Newark and diocese of Hartford follow. 
The archdiocese of Milwaukee is the fourteenth largest in the 
country, with a population of 235,000. The reason Milwaukee 
falls behind this year is because when the State of Wisconsin was 
ecclesiastically redivided, Milwaukee lost over 60,000 people. 

The archdiocese of New York heads the list as to the number 
of priests, there being 824 located in Gotham. Chicago follows 
with 643 clergymen; Boston, 598; Philadelphia, 521; St. Louis, 
507 ; Pittsburg, 422 ; Baltimore, 405 ; Milwaukee, 362 ; and Cleve- 
land, 355. 

As these figures are given by the authorities of the various dio- 
ceses, they may be taken as official. 



GREAT LAKE RAILROAD. 

(passenger's time tabee). 

Lv. Disobedient Ave. 7.30 A. M. 

" Cigaretteville 7.30 

'' Secret Sin Tunnel 8.00 

" Liar's Cross Roads 8.05 

" Pop, (Water Tank) 8.35 

" Cider Village 9.00 

" Saloonville 9.45 

" Tippleton 10.00 

" Theatre Heights 10.30 

" Gamblers' Inn 1 1.30 

" Thief, (P'lag Sta.) .11.45 

Ar. Drunkard's Tavern 12.00 

(One hour for dinner and sight-seeing). 

Lv. Drunkard's Tavern 1.30 P. M. 

'' Swearers' Furnace 1.45 " 

'' Quarrel Town 2.40 " 

" Murderers' Alley 3.30 " 

" Jail City Landing 4.00 " 

" Court Room 5. 10 " 

(Thirty minutes to make up special train for Hangman's Gap). 

Lv. Poverty Lane 6.00 P. M. 

" Mortgageville 7.00 " 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE O? REASON. 263 

Lv. ^'^Siiicide Junction 8.15 P. M. 

" Big Spreetown 9.45 " 

" Delirium Rapids 1 1 .00 " 

Arrive at Great Lake, or Perdition (outer darkness) at mid- 
night. 

''The fearful, and unbelieving and abominable, and murderers, 
and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators and all liars shall 
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone ; 
which is the second death." — Rev. 21 : 8. 

"''Some become weary and fatigued in seeing such unexpected 
scenery, and decide to take the Lightning Express at Suicide 
Junction, after which there are no more stops until they reach the 
Fearful Lake. 

There are no return tickets on this line as all trains run in one 
direction. 

This line is well equipped with sleepers for the accommodation 
of proud, formal church members. 

It is an old established line, very often called "The Popular 
Route." 

Sacred writ recognizes it as the ''Broad Way," and "many 
there be" pass over it. It also mentions it as a "Way that seemeth 
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." 



" NOT FROM MY BOTTLE." 

In speaking on the subject "My Bottle," John G. Wolley says: 
"Four words answer all arguments : 'We must be politic/ says 
one. Not with my bottle. 'They will have it.' Not from my bot- 
tle. 'It will always be drunk.' Not from my bottle. 'Men have a 
right to drink.' Not from my bottle. 'It will be sold on the sly.' 
Not from my bottle. 

"Perhaps the saloon is to go on. I am not bound to abolish it, 
but only by interest in it. There are 12,000,000 voters in the Uni- 
ted States. I'll vote my fraction right, and every time I vote I'll 
carry my share of that election as long as God is alive. That may 
not do the saloon any harm, but I am bound to be true. A square 
man is never wrong side up. 'My vote won't count.' Listen, 
'Abraham believed God, and it was counted.' 



264 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

"Yes, the saloon may go on, like the brook, forever, and men 
may die in them like fleas, and hell grows fat on drunkards. 
Women may still break their hearts in the vain efforts to woo their 
loved ones from the drink. Ladies may sip their wine, boys still 
learn to drink, and men may burn their hearts to a crisp in alco- 
hol ; priests may still desecrate God's altars with it ; Senators and 
Representatives may be drunk on the floors of Congress ; the sol- 
diers' home may still sell drink to the old soldiers ; the mistress of 
the White House may brew her famous punch — but not from my 
bottle !" 



HOGS VERSUS MEN. 

Some time ago, Sam Jones lectured in Sigourney, Iowa, in 
which he gave a deserved roasting to those who signed saloon peti- 
tions. This report is from a Sigourney paper : 

"This nice little Iowa town, with a farming region around it 
makes one of the garden spots of the world; but with all your 
blessings you can't get along without three saloons to debauch 
vour village and ruin your boys, 'because you need the money.' 

"Here Mr. Jones inquired of the surprised audience "How 
much is the license here ?' Some one answered '$300 to the town.' 
'Nine hundred dollars altogether,' resumed Jones. 'What is your 
population?' Answer, 'Two thousand.' The speaker then did a 
little lightning calculation, and resumed : 

"The liquor dealer walked up to you and said: 'If you will let 
us damn this town we will give you 40 cents apiece. Say, what 
ould a 200-pound hog bring ?' 



w 



"Answer, $12.' 'So,' resumed Mr. Jones, 'hogs $12 apiece and 
folks forty cents a head. Say, brother, don't you wish you were 
a hog ? You and your whole family wouldn't bring enough in this 
town to buy a suckling pig. This is a little lower down than I 
have ever found them. For the pitiful sum of forty cents apiece 
you turn over your boys to be debauched, the hearts of mothers 
to be crushed, and the town ruined — all for forty cents. That is 
cheap : but I expect that is all you are worth, eh ?' 

" 'I want to drop this out. There is not a man of you that 
signed that petition to bring saloons to this town, or county, but 



the; twe;ntieth century age of reason. 265 

deserves that every boy you have in your home shall fill a drunk- 
ard's grave, and your daughters live in the embrace of drunken 
husbands. What did you sign it for? If you did not want your 
boys to drink, or your daughters to marry a drunkard, what did 
you do it for ? Stand up and talk back. You surely did not sign 
hoping your boy would not drink, but that your neighbor's would. 
Why don't you say, 'To tell you the God Almighty truth, I did it 
for forty cents.' If the devil don't get you for it, it is just because 
he don't want you, and every man that will sign that petition — the 
devil will get the last man of you — but thank God, he won't get 
much. If you fellows signed that petition don't feel like a hog, 
you don't feel natural, that's all.' " 



CIGARS FORTY YEARS OLD. 

My attention was called to an article in the Philadelphia Rec- 
ord of a stock of cigars that had been kept for forty years, owing 
to there being a tax on them, and the owner thought it unjust and 
refused to sell them and never would as long as there was any 
tax on them. He died, however, and to settle his estate, the cigars 
were sold. 

It occurred to me that if some shrewd business man was cogni- 
zant of the fact, that a deterioration would take place, and because 
of the same they would make a nice job lot to sell to boys who had 
never acquired the habit, as it seems the tobacco business to many 
is important, that it is essential to make a new recruit of smoke 
as in a business way a saw-mill cannot be run without logs, 
neither can tobacco stores be run without there are boys to learn. 

In Philadelphia people may not be aware of the fact that the 
introduction of the cigarette was to make it easier for boys to ac- 
quire the habit of smoking, as they are manufactured out of the 
mildest form of tobacco, with a mixture of other material that is 
less poisonous than tobacco, and many cigar stumps whose sub- 
stance has been well sucked out. Thereby, by making a mild form 
of tobacco for the boy to start on, he is often made sick on the 
first attempt to smoke strong tobacco. If a manufacturer of strong 
tobacco has decided it is more powerful and affects the boy, why 
not the father and mother reason likewise and the injurious effects 

18 



266 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

of the cigarette does not consist in its use, but because of the boy's 
youthfuhiess, whose nerves are not strong enough to withstand 
the effect of tobacco, and it is therefore more readily detected be- 
cause he has not arrived at an age to be able to withstand the 
eff'ects of the nerve robber. 

The cigarette is sometimes called a coffin nail, the name for the 
same is credited to John h. Sullivan, the pugilist, inferring from 
this that tobacco was injurious in any form; therefore, he would 
not indulge in the use of any, when in training for a champion- 
ship. 

Then why should fathers and mothers tolerate a poison about 
the home any more than they would arsenic or strychnine, as all 
will kill a person if enough is taken, or you can live a long while 
by taking small doses. Then if all are poison, would it not be as 
consistent to keep a viper in the house? Fancy a person, because 
they refuse, some one should defy it to be enlightened. But they 
can be enlightened by referring to a subject in this book entitled 
"the cigarette," which shows the different stages in which a man 
has been by placing the same amount of poison in the shape of a 
viper to his lips and because of a long social custom, the viper has 
intermixed itself in millions of homes. Give it a mild name — habit 
or luxury, but one might realize more of its poisoning fangs by re- 
ferring to page 185 of the number of those in State Prison, and on 
inquiry the warden would tell you the first cause of the incarcera- 
tion was due to smoking the first cigar. The use of a cigar, there- 
fore, can only be compared to the snake who secures its prey by 
charming it, and to the business world can only be compared to a 
boa constrictor, who captures its victim by entwining itself around 
its body and slowly crushing it to death. The tobacco industry 
can only be compared to this by its deceptive way of decoying its 
victim. 

As it does not live as other industries do, because of a sup- 
posed commercial industry whereby the nation is supposed to burn 
itself rich. The same is more fully explained on page 23. Whether 
the tobacco snake is the one spoken of in the garden of Eden that 
beguiled our first parents and it shall compel the people to go on 
their belly all their days because of his charm and delusive ways, 
what is learned social customs or whether the twentieth century 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 267 

is to be marked with a higher development of the human race. 
The struggle is now on as to whether graft, greed, avarice, ap- 
petite, etc., are to reign or whether man is to free himself from 
the bondage that is called sin, or whether sin is to be displaced by 
producing the knowledge as given by Christ in the New Testa- 
ment, as there is no teaching anywhere where the toleration of 
habit is in accord with its precept ; therefore, a habit as here 
spoken of, must be a sin, but it will be recognized as such ac- 
cording to a higher development of man's obligations to himself 
and others. 

When the two twin evils are buried, the victory for righteous- 
ness will be won ; but as long as clergymen and others who are sup- 
posed to set a better example in words and deeds, continue to use 
the weed, man will be compelled to go on his belly all his days, as 
he is possessed with the same spirit as the serpent which beguiled 
our first parents, and when he is made free from habit he will be 
the same as when he was created, as it is only reasonable to sup- 
pose that God would not create a being with a desire for either 
tobacco or intoxicating liquor ; therefore, God could not make 
man other than a free moral agent, and as man is only a creature 
of circumstances due to the love of money and not because he has 
a desire for the so-called luxury, but a victim of conditions because 
of robbery being implanted in man; therefore, man cannot be 
changed, as the fall of man was not in taking the apple but be- 
cause that was his nature. Apparently it makes no difference to 
the man who engages in such business of selling cigars, whether 
the purchaser gets value or not, so long as he gets his money, and 
as long as there is a class of people who are obtuse to the principle 
of giving value for value received, the evil will continue. 



INVEST IN YOUR CHILDREN. 

Take more stock in your children. They deserve it. In them- 
selves they have intrinsic value. Besides they are yours. Your 
children are as good as any one's children. Down in your heart 
you really think so, much as you may dislike them. If any one 
else dared to depreciate them, your dander would rise and you 
would wage a pitched battle in their interest. If you take no stock 
in them, who will ? 



268 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 01^ REASON. 

Invest your money in them. Don't risk the losses your money 
is Hable to, till you have made sure that some of it goes into them. 
Riches have wings. They flee away. Lay not up for yourself 
treasures on earth. Remember the moth and the rust and the 
thieves. Bank it in your children. It will pay big dividends. Like 
bread cast upon many waters it will return to you again. More 
than one person has buried his -money in the earth or builded it 
up into air castles, and lost it all, when he might have kept it, in- 
creased a hundred fold. 

Invest your time and love in them. Many a boy would be saved 
if his parents had the time, or took it, to save him. They have not 
the time for the boy because they are busy with bargains. They 
choose the bargain in order to have something, and in doing it 
they lose what they really have. From them is taken away that 
which they seem to have. They love the boy. Time given to win- 
ning the hearts and lives of one's children is spent the best of any. 

It goes pretty tough for a boy when he realizes that his father 
cares more for a batch of stocks and bonds or a pile of brick bats 
and a smokestack than he does for him. He naturally thinks they 
must be of more account than he is. The father's conduct delib- 
erately says so. He grasps the same idea, and when he has sons 
he will likely repeat the error. Men ought to see things in their 
right values. — President Lincoln Hulley, Ph. D. 



IT ROTS AND RUINS. 

A bartender plaintively bewailed the necessity of having to rub 
congealed drops of sticky beer off the bar. "But if I let them re- 
main," he said, in tones of one seeking compassion, "they rot the 
wood." 

"They rot the wood, do they?" fiercely repeated the beer bib- 
ber. "Then what in the name of common sense do they do to my 
stomach?" "It is beyond me to tell," replied the manipulator of 
drinks. "Of one think I am confident, and that is, that man's 
stomach is made of cast iron. Elsewise how could he withstand 
the amount of fluid that he pours into it ? Let me show you some- 
thing." He placed a piece of raw meat on the counter and 



the: twentieth century age of reason. 269 

dropped it into a small measure of imported liquor. In five min- 
utes the meat had parted into little pieces, as though hacked by a 
dull knife. 

It is not surprising that beer drinkers are held by life insurance 
companies to be extra hazardous risks. — Arkansas Searchlight. 



WHAT I LIVE FOR. 

I live for those who love me, 

Whose hearts are kind and true. 
For the heaven that smiles above me, 

And awaits my spirit too ; 
For the human ties that bind me, 
For the task by God assigned me. 
For the bright hopes left behind me, 
And the good that I can do. 

I live to learn this story. 
Who've suffered for my sake. 

To emulate their glory. 
And to follow in their wake; 

Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages. 

The noble of all ages. 

Whose deeds crowd history's pages, 
And Time's great volume make. 

I live to hold communion 

With all that is divine, 
To feel there is a union 

'Twixt Nature's heart and mine; 
To profit by affliction, 
Reap truths from fields of fiction. 
Grow wiser from conviction. 

And fulfil each grand design. 

I live to hail that season, 

By gifted minds foretold, 
When men shall rule by reason, 

And not alone by gold ; 
When man to man united. 
And every wrong thing righted. 
The whole world shall be lighted,. 

As Eden was of old. 



270 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

I live for those who love me, 

For those who know me true, 
For the heaven that smiles above me, 

And awaits my spirit too ; 
For the cause that lacks assistance. 
For the wrong that needs resistance, 
For the future in the distance, 
And the good that I can do. 

— George Linnaeus Banks. 



AN OPEN LETTER. 

I was much interested in Dr. Fishburn's sermon on the subject 
of ''Displacement/' deHvered at the Presbyterian Church, Cam- 
den, Sunday evening, November 12, taken from Isaiah 54: ij: 
'Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the 
brier shall come up the myrtle tree : and it shall be to the Lord for 
a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." 

I did not understand the phisosophy of "displacement," avS to 
how the world is to grow better. I believe, and many others with 
me, that Dr. Fishburn by not making his discourse more explicit 
as to how the world is to grow better, leaves himself open to criti- 
cism and the question open to guesswork as to how long it will be 
before the disi-lo' cement of evil will come to pass. Maybe it v/ill 
come by means of the ballot as in a recent election in Philadelphia, 
when conditions became simply unbearable and out of the evil and 
corruption God wrought a great good. The doctor would have 
us believe that the saloon is not to be abolished by the votes of the 
people, and I for one would like to ask how it can be removed in 
any other legal and peaceable way under our Republican form of 
government. The saloon is now being perpetuated through the 
license system by the votes of the people, and it is reasonable to 
suppose that if it is to be removed it must be by the same agency. 
Perhaps he based his conclusion on the result of the recent elec- 
tion in Camden, when 10,000 votes were cast for liquor and 2,000 
votes cast against it. The majority vote must express his senti- 
ment. 

Some people believe that if the saloon is aboHshed it will be be- 
cause it'becomes so obnoxious to all patriotic citizens and unprofit- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 27 1 

able to the commercial world that it can no longer be tolerated. 
Like in the days of slavery, when the Northern States found the 
slavery business unprofitable, it was abolished. Perhaps if slavery 
had been as profitable in the North as in the South we might have 
had it existing to-day. According to the Doctor's prophecy it ap- 
pears that there is no possibility of removing the saloon by votes. 
Then as long as the men fail to act while the love of gain and the 
almighty dollar is supreme our only hope is in the women, who 
must band themselves together to war on the liquor traffic. The 
women's crusade of former years will have to be reorganized un- 
less something is done to check this evil. 

Inasmuch as the church professes to be a beacon light to the 
w^orld, we should expect better expressions from the pulpit, or else 
expect it to be silent as to its belief that the saloon will never be 
abolished by votes. If the Doctor had been more explicit as to 
how the liquor traffic was to be abolished, we would not have to 
do so much guessing. He might have meant us to infer that there 
would be another crisis like the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln 
by one stroke of his pen set four million slaves free, and that he 
expected history to repeat itself when the liquor traffic would be 
the cause of war, or he might have meant that President Roosevelt 
would use the power invested in him as the President of the Uni- 
ted States to abolish the liquor traffic. He may have believed that 
the saloon would be abolished by arbitrary and autocratic enact- 
ment, if it is clearly impossible under a republican form of gov- 
ernment to accomplish this reform by means of the ballot. 

We might have had a President who would not be afraid to 
speak on the liquor traffic being a great commercial evil in his 
message. 

Possibly Dr. Fishburn is of the same opinion as an eminent 
divine in Ocean Grove, who also asserted that the saloon would 
never be abolished by the power of votes. Upon inquiry it was 
learned that he meant that the saloon would exist until the second 
coming of Christ, and as he was an old soldier, of course he was 
trying to hold the Republican fort until Christ did come. Or he 
may be like a clergyman who formerly resided in Camden, who 
said that the saloon was a moral question and did not belong in 
politics. 



272 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

Preachers are generally supposed to be teachers as well as ser- 
monizers and to teach the principles as laid down by Christ and 
to follow his example, especially when he drove the merchants 
out of the temple, who were making profit out of the house of the 
Lord, Christ drove them all out at one time and did not leave a 
single one to carry on the nefarious business. When clergymen 
and others who make a pretense at political reform do likewise 
and cease trying to improve on Christ's way of doing things, all 
saloons will be wiped out and not merely reduced in number. 
Then their professions and their actions will be consistent and 
then will evil be displaced by good. 

If the churches would only follow the example of the liquor 
dealers in their singleness of purpose, there would be no room for 
criticism ; but some of them do not and they are continually voting 
for something they do not want. This makes their conduct ap- 
pear very inconsistent. The liquor traffic is carried on in a consis- 
tent manner ; it stands by the party which gives it what it wants 
and makes no distinction between Republican or Democrat, as it 
can procure what it wants from one or the other. There can be 
no hope for a change while ministers declare from the pulpit that 
the liquor traffic can never be abolished at the polls. When min- 
isters live up to their profession and display the spirit of Daniel, 
exercising faith and courage rather than partaking of the king's 
meat, the outlook will be brighter for the cause of temperance and 
righteousness, and when the best citizens of our country practice 
the same faith, they will have no fears that our country will go 
to ruin, even if others do vote for another party than Democratic 
or Republican. 

How can we expect the world to grow better without the help 
of Christion sentiment expressed in the form of votes ? How can 
we overcome evil with good when the evil is the stronger force? 
The attitude of many good people on the question of temperance 
is simply negative. While they do not oppose temperance forces 
and temperance work yet they do not help it along. When God 
created man, he created a good thing. That was God's. The ac- 
tions of man, however, are evil and that continually. They are 
man's doings and therefore we must ever have with us churches 
and preachers, Y. M. C. A.'s, W. C. T. U.'s and other good insti- 



I 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 273 

tutions to counteract the evil effects. These professed agencies for 
good should not discourage any effort, no matter how small and 
weak, to put down the evils of the day. We need preachers who 
will not stultify the principles of the church. Christ said, "He that 
is not for me is against me,'' and no minister has a right to assume 
a neutral position on this or any other great moral question. If 
the pulpit cannot indorse an effort to abolish the saloon, how can 
you expect the pew to use its influence and vote against it ? 

The least a minister can do is to remain neutral and refrain from 
discouraging conscientious citizens in a good work. A discourag- 
ing attitude tow^ards the temperance cause is really encouragement 
for the saloon forces. 

The liquor traffic is not similar to any evil that we have had in 
the past. The evil of slavery had only one side and one principal 
cause for its existence, and that was greed for money. But the 
liquor traffic has two sides, the side of greed and the side of ap- 
petite, and these two influences work in harmony with each other 
and rule man's better nature. The Doctor says he would displace 
evil with good, but if evil happened to be the stronger power, it 
would control the good, and his theory would fail. This was 
shown in our recent election when 10,000 people, the larger part 
of them church members, said by their votes that the saloon was 
a good thing. The Doctor says good is bound to prevail, but the 
facts show that the saloon actually does prevail. From this elec- 
tion and Dr. Fishburn's theory of displacement the conclusion is 
simply inevitable that the saloon is a good thing and that we are 
enjoying its good effects at the present time. When we vote for 
the saloon we are simply carrying out the principles of Bishop 
Potter who sang the doxology at the opening of a New York 
saloon. 

A vote should always register a person's convictions, and Bishop 
Potter's benediction is evidently in accordance with his idea of a 
good thing. The destruction of the saloon cannot be brought about 
in our republic by the arbitrary will and force of its ruler, as might 
be done under a monarchial form of government. We cannot be 
a monarchy and a republic at the same time, or we would be like 
a freak at a county fair, neither one thing nor the other, and about 
which people ask, "What is it?" 



274 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

Like Jonah, many ministers are prone to take a short cut to Tar- 
shish rather than obey the plain command of the Bible to go to 
Nineveh. If we all, ministers and laymen, had obeyed the plain 
command of the Bible regarding the evil that is among us, by this 
time we might have had a President at Washington who would be 
outspoken against the liquor traffic, rather than being ruled by its 
Czar, as we are at the present time and have been ever since our 
government went into partnership with it by receiving revenue 
from it, which is nothing else than blood money to our nation. It 
is said that when General Sherman proposed the taxing of liquor 
for revenue, Lincoln replied, "li we do this, we will fasten the 
liquor traffic on our nation." This prophecy has surely been veri- 
fied and the last condition of slavery to the drink habit is worse 
than the first. 

As it is human for individuals to err, so it is for nations to err. 
By this partnership the whole nation has been involved in the 
bondage of appetite backed by greed, and the business has fastened 
itself on us like barnacles on a ship. 

Perhaps it might have been more helpful to his congregation if 
Dr. Fishburn had taken a straight course for Nineveh instead of 
following man's natural inclination to make things appear the best 
in his own eyes and to tickle the ears of his audience in an en- 
deavor to stir up a balmy breeze for the Republican party. We 
think the Doctor should have denounced the 250,000 saloons we 
have in the L'nited States. He should cry aloud until the whole 
nation knows the dire effects of the liquor traffic. I would be in- 
sulting the pulpit if I were to say that it had no influence politi- 
cally, and any utterances from the pulpit must have their influence. 
The speaker should have no fear of unpleasant results when he 
was representing the principles of Christ, for the latter said unto 
Peter, referring to the church, "On this rock do I build my church, 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 

A Layman. 



If it is a crime to make a counterfeit dollar, it is ten thousand 
times a worse crime to make counterfeit man. — Abraham Lincoln. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 275 

PHILADELPHIA'S POLITICAL CONDITION. 

It reminds me of a boy that wrote his prayers and pinned them 
on the headboard, and instead of going through the ceremony, 
would say, "There are my sentiments." The same could be applied 
to the many voters who say their prayers 365 days in a year, and 
on the last day they say, ''There are my sentiments." 

By pinning their faith to a party by the name of a man, Instead 
of pinning it to a party whose principles are of God, the same be- 
ing delivered on Mt. Sinai, given us in the Ten Commandments. 

The present political condition also reminds me of the Good 
Samaritan ; the Republican party strayed off from the principles 
as above and fell among thieves, pleading with the Prohibitionists 
to help them this time, or in other words, to act the part of the 
Good Sammaritan towards the Levite, thereby applying the salve 
and the oil to heal their wounds. And the political condition of 
Philadelphia would still remind one of the Scriptural narrative of 
Jacob and Esau, where the latter sold out his birthright for a mess 
of pottage. 

But when the Republican party went in partnership with the 
liquor traffic, they sold out for the mess of pottage. 

Also there is another Biblical comparison of the five wise and 
five foolish virgins. While the Republican party have been slum- 
bering and sleeping they can only be compared to the foolish vir- 
gins. They say to the Prohibitionists, "Give us of your oil, for our 
lamps are going out." And the present condition might be illus- 
trated by a short story of the Irishman who died, and there was no 
one to act as mourners and to pay him respect. Two of his com- 
rades volunteered to act as mourners, and as they were walking 
along, with bowed heads, a swill cart, unawares, got between them 
and their dead friend. And to act the part of the mourner they 
dare not look up. One of them said to the other : "Don't you think 
they have kept him too long?" Presently they discovered they 
were following the swill cart. 

Is not this the condition of the Republican Party of to-day ? The 
swill cart has gotten between them and their best friend. They 
have had their time of feasting and have become unconsciously 
following the swill cart. They begin to see the hand writing on 
the wall as did Belshazer, and they are about ready to bury their 



276 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

friends and are looking for mourners, when they have gotten their 
certificate of death. Probably the coroner's verdict will be that of 
drinking too much Republican beer, as it will be hard for the coro- 
ner to detect whether the party's death was due to graft or due to 
the drinking of beer. By referring to page 60 you can judge for 
yourself. 

Leaving the Biblical comparisons, we are reminded of some 
things in this day and generation, when New Jersey was noted for 
its Blue Law of Jersey Justice. But there came a time when it 
lost its past good name, owing to its geographical condition. The 
upper part of the State bounded by New York and the lower part 
bounded by Philadelphia. Because of the gambling spirit per- 
vading with all men more or less the establishment of a Gutten- 
berg race-track near New York City and one at Gloucester gave 
many of such in these large cities a chance to practice their in- 
clinations and the cause of the opportunities leading to other vices 
that they continued to grow very rapidly, which led the business 
community and also the church to become alarmed because of tbt- 
practicing of the gambling propensities. 

Hearing of an eminent divine who was reputed to have great 
power of prayer, and believing in the deliverance from the many 
evils, begun his prayer with a calm deliberation saying: "O, I,ord, 
Thou knowest our geographical condition, and we are apparently 
about to be stolen by the gamblers of Philadelphia and New York, 
and do Thou once more extend Thine arm around New Jersey and 
restore to her the once good name of Jersey Justice." Would it not 
be a wise act on the part of Philadelphia not to rely on pinning 
their sentiment to a man who had the distinction of Honest Old 
Abe, to help them out of their difficulties, trying to establish a 
party calling the same the Lincoln Republican, but it is evident that 
the secret will be found in voting right and their prayers will be 
answered by the removal of the saloon which has caused the 
greater part of the trouble. 



LABOR DAY. 

This being a legal holiday for the celebration of labor, and 
Icnowing that labor is the most important of all things pertaining 
to man's life, as the Scripture says that by the sweat of our brow 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 277 

we shall earn our bread. As we all know, each individual consid- 
ers labor his capital, and that each man has so much capital for 
him to use, it is for his own good or the good of others. He can 
only be compared in the sense of the trust. When they combine 
their capital, while the latter have two motives: one for economy, 
the other to prevent competition and secure greater profits from 
their capital invested. 

The laboring man with his capital who unites with the labor or- 
ganization has three motives : To prevent and protect a trust from 
reducing the price of his labor, and at the same time, if his organi- 
zation is strong enough, it will raise the price of their commodity, 
it being labor. And when the capitalists began to combine their 
wealth, the laboring men began to organize, so instead as some 
term it, labor against capital, it is the laborers' capital against com- 
bined capital, and as a common saying, ''Two wrongs never make 
one right." 

There could be a much better condition made if they both did 
not possess the same spirit of graft and use the same whenever 
there is an opportunity. The present condition with the laboring 
man in whatever avocation it may be, there seems to be a crying 
need for more wages, his excuses being that necessities are much 
higher, which apparently they are. There is a just excuse because 
of the trust, but if the laboring man would act wisely he might 
avoid much of the difficulty, as it is important that capital and 
labor should work in harmony as two partners, as their dependence 
of success and non-success is impossible while there is so much 
hostility between them. It is evident that their differences will 
grow from bad to worse. To explain this saying, it might be 
shown as when in conversation with a person who was identified 
with a corporation who is in the lithograph business, stating they 
were undergoing the ordeal of a strike and that they had three 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars of orders to be filled, and if 
they conceded to the demands of the workmen they would not 
make anything, he stating his men were satisfied, which caused 
me to inquire what made them go on a strike. His reply was that 
they could not help it, as they had joined the labor organization 
and had signed a contract that if they did not live up to it they 
would criminate themselves, and he said that he actually felt sorry 



278 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

for them, as they were in a bad condition, financially and mentally. 
The same day I met another gentleman who was contracting for 
plastering houses, and being interested in that line at present, I 
inquired as to prices. He stated the same and I naturally asked 
why his prices were so high. He informed me there was a strike 
on and if he made an estimate it would have to be subject to the 
prices of his laborers, without going into a discussion of the merits 
or demerits whether their condition has been provoked, due to the 
combining of capital in the form of trusts. 

We suppose they believe each have their merits and their evil 
effects, but they are both like many other things that have grown 
up ; when they first originated they were started for a good pur- 
pose, to benefit each other, but continued to grow until they be- 
came a power, and they both use the same when there is an oppor- 
tunity, when they can make money, and if the reader should be- 
come conversant with the many pages of this book it will cause 
him to see it is very imprudent for mankind to make a condition 
where he will be subject to temptation, either by afflicting his own 
iDody with a supposed luxury or by organization that he is tempted 
to gamble or take chances, and a great question of labor trust and 
commercial trust is an important problem, and whether the same 
will be settled soon is a great interest what the outcome will be to 
the nation. 

The laboring man believes he is compelled to protect himself 
and thinks what a worse condition he would have been in if they 
had not united. Perhaps if there had been a balance account kept 
of all the labor organizations and embodied in one account, it is 
very probable that their advance price would not pay for the lost 
time and, including the expense of their dues required to support 
their organization and owing to so much uncertaintv regarding 
the labor question that many business enterprises are postponed, 
the loss to labor is enormous. It is positive that some one must 
lose, whether it be the builder of homes or both, as this is the 
greatest of all industries and is the most essential to the preserva- 
tion of a nation, as when it is a business, the making of houses is 
evident the tendency is detrimental to the uplifting of mankind. 
Whether rents and all other things will adjust themselves to meet 
the demand of the labor organization, it is very evident that debtor 



THi: TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 279 

and creditor seek their level and as the saying, "It must come out 
in the wash," or whether the various combines will keep on until 
they destroy themselves, or whether human nature will have to 
have a guardian placed over them, through some government reg- 
ulation, to prevent them from doing to themselves and others an 
injustice. As I was in conversation with a man belonging to the 
labor organization, I inferred that it was their purpose to make 
various manufacturers, where they were making large profits, to 
divide up with the labor organization. The rightfulness and the 
effects of the same, if put into practice is a debatable question, and 
it is very evident a larger part of the human race could, if they 
would, do many things to cause themselves to live more happily, 
if they would concede to each other regarding the profits as the 
distant relation they hold to those who make their wealth by their 
labor, and when they see such large accumulations of wealth due 
to their labor, it is only human to feel that the world's wealth is 
not being equally divided, and because they are less fortunate, it 
is very difficult for an intelligent laborer to reconcile his condition 
that he is being justly dealt with, because he is not one of the more 
fortunate, but owing to many of the laboring men's habits and the 
way they spend their money, and often their families go in want, 
due to the same, makes a more reasonable excuse. Those who 
make large profits from their labor are less inclined to grant the 
laboring man any advance in wages, owing to the unsatisfactory 
laborer he is often compelled to employ owing to the contracting 
of the liquor habit and the many laborers who are forced on them 
of this kind through the labor organizations is not calculated to 
cause their employer to have much admiration for those he em- 
ploys, thereby the contracting of these habits is to the laboring 
man's own injury. If they would inform themselves regarding 
what so many call luxury and other pet names, such as comfort 
and pleasure, and if one should speak to them they often will say, 
"We only go this way but once, and we are a long time dead," and 
the laboring man should be entitled to all the pleasures there is for 
him. It will be useless to discuss this subject here, as there are 
other subjects which treat on the same thing and will leave the 
reader to determine which person gets the most happiness out of 
this life, the non-user or the one who has acquired these habits, 



28o THE twi;ntii;th century age of reason. 

but this does not enter into the labor problem only to the extent 
that the laboring man is injured by the contracting of these habits, 
as I have said in the beginning, and by one man's act the other 
was affected, and it applies to the labor organization if the habit 
has deteriorating effects, to the extent of that effect the organiza- 
tion is affected, as some one must be encumbered with unproduc- 
tive labor or a loss to some one ; therefore, the contracting of the 
tobacco and liquor habits the organization is affected in two ways. 
And, owing to this class of laborers instead of saving their money 
they use it to supply this abnormal appetite, thereby they are com- 
pelled to work for less wages to get employment, and instead of 
being able to retire and give their place to another, they are in the 
labor market, thereby causing an extra supply of laborers, and it 
has a tendency to reduce the price of skilled labor, as many of 
them are skilled labor; thereby, the contracting of the habit is 
making it hard for other laborers who do try to live right to main- 
tain their families respectably. The number of this named class are 
so few that their power to influence large corporations to divide 
their profit and their influence is lost and evidently will have to keep 
on plodding the same old way as long as the labor organization ad- 
mits the class of persons who have contracted these habits, and es- 
pecially where they use them to excess. If one should doubt this 

he can be better informed by reading on page and learn of 

the comparison of those who work and put their savings in the 
bank of the State of Maine, and if one wishes to make a compari- 
son of the working people of Portland, Maine, and other States 
where liquor is prohibited, by so doing will be convinced that total 
abstinence is good for the individual and the State, and we all 
know there is nothing produced without labor, then it is important 
that the laboring man should patronize or consume those pro- 
ducts which tend to make joy and happiness and not consume 
something that robs themselves of labor, as the world's wealth is 
a product of labor, and we naturally suppose that other nations' 
consumption of liquor per capita is as much as the United States, 
and if so, in less than fifty years the people of this world will con- 
sume its entire wealth by the use of these narcotics : tobacco and 
liquor. 

The same is explained more readily by a comparison of the San 



the; twentieth century age oe reason. 281 

Francisco earthquake, which cost so much labor to produce that 
property. Suppose there should come a blight or some insect and 
destroy $300,000,000 worth of tobacco, would there be any loss to 
the nation ? No ; as it has no intrinsic value. The laborer would 
have a loss, but that does not prove it had a value. There has per- 
haps been $300,000,000 spent in attempting to secure perpetual 
motion, but not producing such, there has been no value produced 
by the laborer on the same, as there can be no value ; then it is im- 
possible to secure any happiness from the use of tobacco, the same 
as one attempting to produce perpetual motion, as a disappoint- 
ment in not obtaining it exceeds the pleasure which might be ex- 
plained of a man by the name of Leach who attempted to invent 
perpetual motion, but has always been and always will be a disap- 
pointment, and after he had made several attempts to start his ma- 
chine going he became discouraged and set it aside with a very 
anxious desire that it might start, and while in his deep meditation 
the apparatus started to go, and in his great excitement, called to 
his wife, "Get up, get up, it's a going, it's a going," saying the name 
of Leach will be forever immortalized, but before she could see 
much of its working the apparatus stopped, thereby the labor was 
lost and disappointed ecstacy and pleasure. Is not this the same 
as one attempting to add to himself as he is simply matter. All 
matter is subject to the law of gravitation and is inert. To add any- 
thing to matter to make it go, you must suspend the law of gravi- 
tation. If man attempts to add to his pleasure by increasing the 
beat of his heart one-third faster than it is natural for it to beat by 
applying tobacco and liquor, he is as inconsistent as a man who at- 
tempts to produce perpetual motion, and the same should be called 
as an attempt to secure pleasure, not as some would call it a false 
pleasure, as there cannot be any such thing as false pleasure any 
more than there can be perpetual motion, as every weight you put 
on yourself that is not natural to your system only helps weigh you 
down more and shortens your life and it is very evident, if San 
Francisco had continued in enforce the prohibitory law of the sale 
of liquor she would have immortalized her name, but since she 
has licensed 600 saloons she has forced disgrace upon herself and 
can only be compared to Sodam and Gomorah. 

We are told by statistics that there are $600,000,000 worth of 
tobacco consumed annually in the United States. By a mathemat- 

19 



282 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

ical calculation it can be shown how the city of San Francisco may 
be built up to its former condition in six months' time in the fol- 
lowing ways : 

The average wealth of the United States is $i,ooo per capita, or 
a trifle over. This being true and San Francisco having 300,000 
inhabitants, her real estate value therefore should be $300,000,000, 
which we understand was the amount of the loss due to the earth- 
quake and fire. Therefore, granting that $600,000,000 worth of 
tobacco is consumed annually, if the users of tobacco throughout 
the United States would make a sacrifice and abstain from its use 
for six months and contribute the same amount of money to the 
Relief Fund, they would in that time have reinstated the unfor- 
tunate sufferers to their original condition. 

This would be carrying out the universal law of displacement, 
in displacing $300,000,000 worth of tobacco whose place would be 
taken by the rebuilded city and restoring homes to the thousands 
who at the present time are homeless. 

We are also told by statistics that there are $1,200,000,000 worth 
of intoxicating liquors dispensed throughout the United States 
annually. This means that if every user of liquor would make a 
sacrifice and abstain from the use of it for three months, the city 
of San Francisco could be rebuilded. 

Altogether there are $1,800,000,000 spent annually for tobacco 
and liquor. Now then, if the users of these narcotics would stop 
using them for nine weeks, there would be enough money saved to 
fully restore the city of San Francisco. 

To further carry out the law of displacement: If the users of 
tobacco and intoxicating liquors used the money in building homes, 
making the average cost $2,000, in one year the money spent for 
the above named narcotics, which in round numbers is $2,000,000,- 
000, there could be built 1,000,000 homes. 

Taking the population of the United States to be 75,000,000, and 
an average of five voters to a family, in fifteen years every voter 
could own his own home. As conditions are now, not one voter 
in fifty owns Jiis own home. This would add greatly to the Na- 
tion's wealth in the matter of real estate and would correspond- 
ingly reduce the taxes to a very small minimum to each individual. 

To make this mathematical calculation still clearer: Labor en- 
ters into the value of every product, whether it be the building of 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 283 

houses, manufacturing of necessities of life, or even the making of 
tobacco and intoxicating hquors. Therefore, whatever amount of 
the product is destroyed, the value of the labor required in its out- 
put is lost. Hence, if one should in a lifetime burn up, smoke up, 
chew up or drink up the value of a home, the value of the money 
is lost to the individual, the value of the labor is lost to all con- 
cerned, as well as a loss in real estate to the city in which that in- 
dividual resides. 

This principle is the same as in the case of San Francisco, when 
in one gigantic stroke of earthquake and fire the city was laid in 
ashes and the cost of the labor to produce it was lost. 

It is impossible to attempt to burn, smoke, chew or drink one- 
self rich or make a city wealthy by the manufacture of such com- 
modities as above named, as the labor of those who are employed 
in the manufacture of them is lost, whereas on the contrary, with 
this amount of money being put to a different and better use they 
could be employed in the manufacture of hats, shoes, clothing, 
and furniture, which, if all the homes of the various persons whq 
are now addicted to these habits, had their full complement of 
these necessities, there would be a greater demand for labor, and 
the merchants in general would be much more benefitted. 

But instead of this, in our present condition, we are sending 
men to almshouses, jails, prisons, and alas, some to the insane asy- 
lum, who have been addicted to these habits, thereby not only 
wasting the labor of those employed, but causing the city, state 
and nation a great and needless annual expenditure of money for 
the maintenance of these various institutions, to say nothing of 
the vast sums of money spent in maintaining the Courts through- 
out the United States for the trying of the thousands of cases that 
could be directly traced to the use of these stimulants. 

Now one way that this condition of affairs could be overcome 
is to arouse each individual user of these narcotics to a realization 
not only of his own condition, but also of the condition of his fel- 
lowman. 

PLEDGE SIGNING. 

Knowing from observation and experience how difficult for 
those who have contracted the habit of tobacco and intoxicating 
liquors, owing to the phenominal effect it produces on the nerve 



284 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

system, whereas it is almost impossible for those who have be- 
come addicted to the use, and owing to my many years in obtaining 
certain knowledge regarding the effects of their use on the human 
system, I herein write a pledge for those desirous to quit their 
use, knowing the same will be a great assistance in one's attempt- 
ing to break off the habit. I will readily send a printed pledge, as 
per copy, to any one who is a possessor and owner of the three 
named books: The Monitor, Dr. Gleason's works on How to Ac- 
quire and Preserve Health, and The Tzventieth Century Age of 
Reason, at the same time give a printed form, how any mother, 
father or any user of tobacco or liquor may be instructed to break 
off the habit ; also instruct how the same can be accomplished with- 
buc little annoyance or discomfort to the user, and because of my 
great interest and love for those who have become a victim to 
the appetite, I have been induced to give all the information pos- 
sible to help the unfortunate, whereby he may be able to free him- 
self from the injurious effects and filthy habit, thereby they may 
be able to have the freedom of a natural man, as God intended he 
should, enjoying the happiness and pleasure intended for him by 
his Creator. Owing to the many who had become low down in 
the scale of life by the contracting of these habits and are brought 
before the Court for drunkenness, many judges and Recorders are 
often annoyed by the repeated arrests in their court due to drunk- 
enness, and if a Judge should be desirous to help him reform by 
getting him to sign the pledge, I will gladly send them a printed 
pledge free to all who may desire the same. The conditions of the 
pledge are as follows : 

''Hereby, by the help of God, this day, I, , 

now from this day will abstain from the use of tobacco in all forms, 
such as snuff, cigarettes, cigars, cut or plug tobacco. This cov- 
enant I now make to my God and all those that are near and dear 
to me. Never, under any consideration, will I begin the use of it 
again. I also hereby this day agree to abstain from the use of any 
intoxicating liquids or fluids which contain any alcohol that may 
induce intoxication, so help me God. 



P. S. — Those who do not desire to include tobacco can erase 
the same. And those who do not desire to sign off the use of in- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 285 

toxicating liquors may do likewise. Those desiring to abandon 
these habits will find the task easier by leaving ofif the use of both 
at the same time. Breaking off by degrees in nine cases out of 
ten fails to accompHsh either. 

Address, 

The Monitor Publishing Co., 

Camden, N. J. 



ALCOHOL ALWAYS HARMFUL. 

Two weeks ago a great medical convention was held in Toronto, 
Canada. One of the addresses delivered before the convention 
was by Sir Victor Horseley, on the effects of alcohol on the human 
system. He held that alcohol is not only not helpful, but that it is 
injurious. When his views were published the London Express 
took exception to them, and insisted that, on the contrary, ale, for 
instance, in moderation, is a good tonic for the laborer, developing 
strength and stamina. 

This called out a reply from the eminent physician, in which he 
reiterated and emphasized his former statement. Referring to th^ 
claim of the Express he said : 

"As a scientific statement this is entirely false. It has been ab- 
solutely demonstrated that alcohol is detrimental to physical labor. 
All the investigations which commenced with the experiments of 
Doctor Parks on soldiers have proved this. The Red River expe- 
dition also confirms it. 

''The shifting of the gauge on the Great Western Railway, 
which was one of the greatest physical feats done in England, was 
done without alcohol. Tons of oatmeal and water were consumed 
by the men, and they liked it better than any alcohol drink. This 
immense piece of work was done in forty hours. 

''Doctor Parks in his experiment set two gangs of soldiers 
working at similar work, one gang drinking beer and the other 
gang drinking water. The gangs were paid for the amount of 
work they did. After a few days it was found that the water- 
drinking men were doing more work than those who were drink- 
ing the beer. They were earning more money. At last the beer 



286 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

gang asked to be allowed to drink water because they were earn- 
ing so much less money than the other men. 

''This experiment was established under absolutely scientific 
control, and confirms once for all that just as has been shown with 
intellectual work, so to physical work, alcohol, whether as beer, 
wine or spirits, is only most harmful and injurious." 

After speaking of some incidental matters, the Doctor returned 
to the main subject, and said in general: 

"There is no need to dogmatize on the question of alcohol ; facts 
are so patent. When the facts are considered by an unprejudiced 
observer, there is only one conclusion, and that is, that in associa- 
tion with bad housing of the artisian class, the consumption of 
alcohol is directly responsible for national deterioration. 

''This was absolutely established by a committee which exam- 
ined into the causes of the physical deterioration of the people of 
the United Kingdom. 

"The report of their finding produced such an intense impres- 
sion throughout the old country that most of the important muni- 
cipal bodies have caused their cities to be placarded with posters 
pointing out to their constituents the danger of regarding alcoholic 
drinks as harmless. And they also advocate a total abstinence 
from all alcoholic drinks as the surest means, not merely of pre- 
serving the health of the individual, but of furthering the quality 
of the work of the nation upon which its position in the industrial 
and civilized world depends." 

These views are not new, but they are valuable. It is important 
that they should be kept before the people. The advocates of 
strong drink are tireless, and their misrepresentations and false 
claims are constantly being repeated. And moreover, human ap- 
petite is on their side, supported by a widespread false impression 
It is necessary that the friends of truth and of humanity should 
be diligent in making known the real facts in the case. As a med- 
icine alcohol may have its place, but as a beverage it is always 
harmful. It contains no nutriment, is no aid to the powers of hu- 
man endurance, but, on the contrary, impairs these powers. On 
this point medical science and human experience are agreed, and 
this fact should be kept before the public. — Pittsburg Christian 
Advocaie. 



the; twentieth century age of reason. 287 

ANSWER THESE FOUR QUESTIONS. 

BY ANNA CARTER. 

Very weary one evening I retired to rest, and had a beautiful 
dream in which I saw the Hquor traffic crushed out of existence. 
It was in this way: I saw printed in bold type at the beginning 
of the first column of every newspaper in the world, certain state- 
ments and questions. They were printed week after week and in 
that way they were planted in the minds of all intelligent persons, 
whether they meant them to be or not, and thus a mental vote was 
taken without regard to age or sex. This continued until the elec- 
trical power of concentrated thought became so intense that no 
one could run a saloon. 

The impression has deepened that God gave me this dream for 
a purpose, and that you are the one that can make the ideal a real- 
ity. For this purpose I submit it for your consideration, praying 
that you may be guided by divine wisdom. This is what I saw, 
standing at the head of the first column of every newspaper in the 
world : 

"The saloon is the product of Satanic thought, expressed in hu- 
man action at the ballot box. 

'Tt can only live by the destruction of human beings. 

"It will go by Christian thought expressed at the ballot box. 

''When, will depend upon the individual answers to the follow- 
ing questions : 

"i. Do I want a saloon to destroy me, or any of mine? 

"2. Do I want it to destroy any one else? 

"3. Will I consent by silence, thought, word or ballot to the con- 
tinuance of the saloon ? 

"4. If I consent by silence, thought, word or ballot to the con- 
tinuance of the saloon, what assurance have 1, that I, or some of 
mine will not be among its victims?" 



IS NOT PAIN THE OUTGROWTH OF REASON? 

This can only be answered as a thought determining the action 
of our bodies. As this is true, it is of great importance of all as- 
sisting in making conditions, that we, through our five senses, con- 



288 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

centrate them into one great power, that good thoughts will be 
generated, as apparently the whole object of human life depends 
upon how much happiness can be gotten out of it. Then our rea- 
son prompts us that there can be mental pain when there is a dis- 
pointment as well as physical pain when the body is hurt. 

As a dynamo gathers its power from the elements of nature, so 
must we gather our power of reason by what we have heard and 
seen and felt, and as a person of years can only look back to his 
childhood days, his reason would lead him up to the expression as, 
when the Atlantic cable was laid, "What hath God wrought?" 
This condition of the human race might be more clearly brought 
to our minds by the history of Moses when, from a child, that 
was saved by the ark made from buUrushes, and we now have the 
laws to-day which were given by Moses, and when he grew up he 
refused to accept the honors of the government of Pharoah and 
remained with his own people that they might be led out of 
bondage. A comparison between the reasoning of Moses 
and that of Pharoah, who passed the edict to put to death all the 
male infants that were born. By this comparison, what has God 
wTough on the minds of men, and those who have practiced the 
laws that were inspired to Moses, as apparently God's hand inter- 
posed that in the future man could be guided by the code of laws 
which is the saying of Blackstone that law is founded on common 
sense, reason and justice, and the principle ingrafted by Moses is 
the controlling power to-day that man might be guided to right. 
Is it not inconsistent for this generation or any coming generation 
to make the attempt to improve on the principles of the old Mosaic 
laws and should accept the same as though it was inspired, and as 
though God had, in person, delivered them ; therefore, our reason 
shows us without law to govern us, we would be apparently as 
the animal. When anything happens to them they accept the same 
and do not reason that if they had done otherwise their condition 
would have been different ; therefore, we reason that when God 
created all animals He had a special purpose in making the man 
animal to be possessed with the power of reason. By not using 
this one God-given gift, we, as human beings will destroy them, 
as our reason will readily show, because past history has proven 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 289 

the same, and the distinction of those animals who made their 
houses the same as they did thousands of years ago, the same 
might be followed in all lines of animal creation, except man, 
which showed that reason is the only power worthy of considera- 
tion. Then we should make the best possible use of it, as power 
without knowledge is dangerous, as the same has been exempli- 
fied from childhood to old age, and because of the danger of our 
physical power we instruct our children that a stove will burn; 
therefore, this power of reason is essential to the human race as it 
is to transmit the steam from the boiler to the engine, and from the 
engine to the dynamo and into the motor. It would be as impos- 
sible for the human race to exist without a motor power, unless 
prompted by a good purpose, the same to govern our physical 
body, thereby the spiritual body will be improved in proportion. 
You make the motor body a fit subject for the spiritual to dwell in, 
then when your reason banishes from your body such obnoxious 
things that defile the body, the body will feel more like giving 
praise to its Creator for being created. The difference between 
pain with the animal and man is, the animal is only educated to 
pain by getting hurt. 

That is when the lash is applied to the horse, he rea- 
sons if he don't move faster he will receive the smarting of the 
lash ; therefore, he must be struck with it to know of pain, but in- 
stead, with man, he reasons which is supposed to take the place 
of the lash, and knowing that if by his own acts or the acts of 
others, if applied on his body, would produce pain ; therefore, rea- 
son is to man what pain is to the animal, and not wait to receive 
affliction. Man will reason what amount of food will injure his 
horse but often makes an epicure of himself, and often when told 
if he does not change his diet he will shorten his days. With nar- 
cotics it is different ; if a physician should inform him that unless 
he stopped the use of these narcotics he would die, or go blind, or 
have a cancer, many would keep right on using them. There can 
be no other reason assigned for such than that they do not produce 
violent pain immediately, and owing to this he will gamble on his 
own life solely because habit has become too powerful, but with 
the natural man reason is supposed to be sufficient to guide him in 



290 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE O^ REASON. 

doing injury to his body. But when he has made himself unnat- 
ural it requires pain to cause him to leave off the habit, and like 
the animal, must be lashed, or if by some accident will cause him 
to have pain, he will reason ; therefore, because many being pos- 
sessed with so much of the animal nature they throw aside the 
God-given gift of reason and lower themselves lower than the ani- 
mal, as you could not educate a hog to indulge in tobacco or 
beer, yet I have known of some persons reading the Bible and 
smoking their pipe to the annoyance of others by often repeated 
protest and they having respect for him, and not wishing to de- 
prive him of such comfort, some one remarked, "Let him alone, 
he is only following out the command of the Scripture," and he 
being a Bible reader, was anxious to know how he could be fulfill- 
ing the Scripture by smoking a pipe. His friend advised him to- 
turn to the passage where it says, "He that is filthy, let him be 
filthy still." It appears that the greater part of the male popula- 
tion of this world is endeavoring to make the prophecy of the 
Scripture come true, as it says the devil is to be chained a thous- 
and years and that man, because of so much graft and greed in 
his nature and on the part of those who will take the advantage of 
his fellowmen because he is possessed with the animal disposition 
that they will become so offensive to the housewife, to the young 
maiden, to the manufacturers and the commercial interests and 
those who are compelled to employ these kind of laborers that have 
deteriorated their value, believing in the near future there will be 
such a protest against tobacco and intoxicating liquors that their 
use will be abandoned for a thousand years, and because of these 
rea"sons, why should we not see the truth of this prophecy as there 
cannot be any greater evil produced whereby a man is driven to 
the lowest depth of degredation that the devil would care to have 
him, by using the two namicd products to produce the kind of 
work he desires. The Scripture also speaks that we will all be of 
one mind and accord, this evidently is fast making its appearance 
owing to such a denunciation of sentiment against these two twin 
evils that it will not be long before this sentiment will become uni- 
versal, as reason is of God and it requires extremities to make an' 
opportunity for God to do a greater work that the future genera- 
tion may be permitted to enjoy the blessings that God intended 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 29 r 

they should because they have comphed with the Scripture, "Come, 
let us reason together," and having acted accordingly, the pro- 
phecy cannot be otherwise than fulfilled that the devil is to be 
chained ; but before this takes place, there must be a more consis- 
tent reasoning applied. 

The Scripture says, ''Come, let us reason together, though your 
sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool." This passage 
shows that reason was intended to advance man to a higher state 
of perfection. Through the process of development of man's rea- 
soning powers some may ask, "How can I reason?" The diffu- 
sion of reason to each individual can only be compared to so much 
avoirdupois or a drug on the market which may be purchased tO' 
soothe the nerves, thereby they become quieted and in proportion 
to one's usage a good quality of reason, the same acts as an anti- 
dote to your whole system because our happiness and joys and 
fears are regulated by this one attribute we call reason. From 
youth to old age we make use of the same whereby we may con- 
sole ourselves whether, it be in some business transaction or some 
other anxious care of our friends, it being natural, we seek conso- 
lation and the outcome, and if reason is properly applied it is one 
of the best antidotes to the nervous and unsuccessful being, as it 
is evident that you establish in your mind the less possibility of 
some misfortune or the outcome of some supposed disaster or de- 
sire that the action of the thoughts is as a barometer which is af- 
fected by outdoor atmosphere, but you may ask the question, how 
can I help being affected by the surroundings connected without 
going into elaborate prescription? The same prescription might 
be found within yourself by studying your own temperament or 
why you possess such a disposition, whether you have properly 
applied the salve of reason and have not let your impulses and 
imaginations control you, which if so, you could not be otherwise 
than nervous and have a very unhappy life because your imagina- 
tion has suppressed reason, the one great difficulty of establishing 
in the minds of many that every one reason from his own condi- 
tion, and will not think that conditions have made him think or 
reason the way he does and does not realize to what extent reason 
may control your condition. 



:292 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

Therefore, reason, as it were, if he were going through college 
where they taught nothing but reason, as his environments had 
never been such that caused him to reason and it could not be ex- 
pected for him or her to rise above the same. This might be ex- 
plained by example : The mother says to the child, "The stove 
will burn," but owing to its inability to understand the principle 
why, she waits until the child advances in years and comes to the 
knowledge that will explain the philosophy of such ; and our pres- 
ent condition has led us up to know why, but if the mother of the 
child were to explain the principle of combustion of fuel, the boy 
would remind you of an American Indian, knowing no difference 
between cause an effect. 

The same might be compared to a boy who acquires the habit 
of tobacco ; he knows that by doing certain acts that a combustion 
will take place, but does not realize the effect it will produce un- 
less he receives a scar from the combustion, but because he cannot 
see a scar on his hand or the deterioration of his body, he does not 
accept the advice of his mother or thousands of others that the 
stove will burn. He persists in its use until he becomes a physical 
^wreck and stunts his growth. The same application can be made 
to intoxicating liquors, as the saying and subjects have been well 
discussed, but might be seen in a different view by the comparison 
in making a distinction between man and the animal. There are 
so many people who are not guided by their first impluse that 
in the many transactions that it was a wrong thing to do, that 
have been brought to a condition that has caused a large amount 
of trouble and unhappiness for themselves and others, and the 
verse is applicable to many : ''The mistakes of my life have been 
many. The sins of my heart" have been more, but with eyes 
streaming with tears, I am knocking at Mercy's door." 

This is the condition of many. They continue to act by not 
reasoning together, and taking the advice of those who have had 
experience and have made many such subjects a study, and by 
not allowing their reason to suppose that one who had made them 
a special study should be the one to take their advice, thereby rea- 
son can be compared as that one had gone to a college, and had 
received the same as one of the courses from the professor in math- 
ematics or any other professor who is supposed to know. 



\ 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 293: 

SHOULD NOT PEOPLE ENJOY GOD'S PURE AIR? 
To the Editor of the North American: 

Dear Sir: — I respectfully ask permission to use a column of 
your valuable space to refer to a subject that is of vital interest 
to every reader, both of Philadelphia and Camden, inasmuch as. 
our comfort is at stake. 

There are man}^ who do not seem to realize what they, as citi- 
zens, are entitled to, in the maintenance of their own inherent 
rights, as American citizens. 

By the common law which was made that all should enjoy the- 
same rights and privileges and when violated they should be dealt 
with to the full extent of the law. But, owing to the elements of 
nature, beyond human control, we have forced upon us obnoxious 
odors by some corporation that is contrary to law. Webster de- 
fines a nuisance: ''Anything which tends to destroy the peace of 
the public." The one that I shall speak of is the Chemical Works 
located below Mifflin street wharf. This has been known for 
many years on account of its obnoxious odors, which are- 
unbearable to many, the same being repeated continuously and 
during the mild seasons, the people of Philadelphia and Camden 
are compelled to endure them, thereby causing in the respiratory 
organs a distressed feeling by affecting the nervous system, such 
causing the effect as here stated, due to the novel conditions^ 
brings to your mind the question why the people of Philadelphia 
and Camden, and other adjacent towns, should be compelled to^ 
endure this obnoxious odor, weherein we, as citizens, believe in 
having our inherent rights, which are pure water and pure air, 
that can possibly be obtained ; but, owing to the location of the 
above named Chemical Works which forces out its fumes more 
pungently than Mt. Vesuvius, causing over a million people to in- 
hale these fumes. We are at present deprived of said rights. 

Then why should we, as American citizens, tolerate such a nuis- 
ance in our midst, thereby destroying the pleasure and comforts 
of thousands of homes by being deprived of God's pure air. It 
has been said of those who perpetrate such acts, whether it be m 
the way of business or for spite, the same is a robber. While this 
assertion may seem extreme, to reason the same philosophically,. 



'294 ^HE TWEJNTIETH CIJNTURY AGE OF RE:AS0N. 

let us ask why should a man or men, under the guise of a manu- 
facturing business, be allowed any more privileges than a private 
citizen, when because his business which can be proven to be det- 
rimental to the health, besides the annoyance to the people, solely 
due as heretofore stated? If the business cannot be conducted 
without the emitting of gases, should not the manufacturer be com- 
pelled to move to some place where the rights of citizens are not 
disturbed ? 

The Scriptures tell us that "The wind bloweth where it listeth 
and we cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth." It is 
quite evident when this was written that the people of those days 
were not annoyed by such nuisances. If so, they would have been 
able to determine from whence the wind cometh because of the air 
being so heavily impregnated with these gases. 

It is positive that the citizens of Camden receive these gases in 
their full strength, as we know from good authority that the fumes 
liave been carried a distance of fifteen miles. 

It has been reported of some other manufacturers, where there 
has been a protest against their products, which they claimed as a 
legitimate business, due to the social side of life, but which many 
call a nuisance to society, but in spite of the protest they ask ''What 
are you going to do about it ?" 

This business is also an important question and requires much 
consideration on the part of those who profess to be loyal to the 
principle of Equal Rights. Therefore, any business that is not 
conducted on the principle of the greatest good to the greatest 
number, should be abolished, and there is no doubt but that the 
wind carries the fumes from the chemical plant on the city of Phil- 
adelphia at some seasons of the year. 

While Philadelphia is so absorbed in making a desperate effort 
to restore her once good name, there could not be a better begin- 
ning than by having the Chemical Works declared a nuisance, and, 
while they would be helping themselves, they would be helpmg 
others. 

This is only in keeping with its name, a City of Brotherly Love, 
and will be known as such, if by making the attempt to have this 
menace removed. While there would be some expense attached 
to the same, the writer being so much interested in having it re- 



the: tweintieth century age: o^ reason. 295 

moved would willingly give a hundred dollars or more when con- 
summated. And I have no doubt but what there are many others 
in Camden who would contribute larger sums, as its fumes cover 
the entire city. Owing to the location of the New York Shipbuild- 
ing plant, its employes are more apt to get a larger share of this 
obnoxious odor, and I believe they would be willing to contribute 
liberally because of the many workmen they employ. I have con- 
versed with some of their employes and it is concluded that they 
are all much affected by the injurious effects of these gases, there- 
by causing much loss of labor to them. 

It appears to me the people of Philadelphia have been obtuse 
to such a nuisance under the guise of business, they supposing it 
is a natural smell of any manufacturing city and accept the same 
as inevitable for business purposes ; such is not the case, however, 
as this one line of manufacturing has more to do with polluting 
the air than all other manufacturing plants combined. And, be- 
cause of this polluted air, those who are less fortunate with this 
world's goods must stay at home and endure it during the heat of 
the summer. 

Therefore, the business feature should not play any part when 
compared to health and the comfort of the people, as there are 
plenty of other places where they could locate. All such other 
manufacturers, who are at the present time within city limits 
should be compelled to move to such a distance as the citizens 
would not have to inhale these obnoxious odors. It would be far 
better for the consumer of these products to pay a higher price for 
the same than to be subject to the results of what such manufac- 
turers do in injury to the city where they are located, as they are 
not only injurious to health but detrimental to the owners of real 
estate property for a long distance from where these plants are 
located. They also hinder the improvement in any enterprise 
whatever. This can be proven if one should take the time to go 
and inquire of those who live nearby ; they will also observe that 
there is no building improvements going on. 

The writer has also taken a day off from business to investigate 
and after going to three places where many supposed the bad 
odor originated from, discovered that the most offensive and the 
one in particular was along the river front below Mifflin street 



296 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

wharf. But on investigation I learned there was one in particular 
bearing the name of manufacturing the healthiest product made 
was the one that caused the most obnoxious odor, which one might 
reason by giving it such a name was to delude the people. 

Such a nuisance can only be compared to a poisonous tree that 
has a semblance of bearing fruit, but which throws off its mi- 
asma for miles around, under which no vegetation or animal life 
can exist. 

Then why not proceed at once to follow out the command of 
the Scriptures, that a tree that beareth not good fruit should be 
cut down. ''Why cumbereth it the ground?" All should reason 
that pure air is one of the most essential things to life, knowing 
that people will spend hundreds of dollars for health and then toler- 
ate a class of manufacturers to injure their health. If the truth was 
known, there are thousands dying annually owing to the impure 
air caused by such manufacturers as Philadelphia has. To reason : 
If pure air lengthens one's life, by going to the mountains or sea- 
shore to obtain it, then by breathing impure air it will shorten life 
the same as drinking water ; and because people do not die instan- 
taneously, they tolerate it, because they do not see the germ of dis- 
ease floating and wriggling in the water or the air. 

This is without doubt, as all physicians and students of hygiene 
will admit. The unadulterated air is a producer of good health, 
and as our Creator did not so create us as to separate the impure 
from the pure, there has not been any satisfactory filtering process 
invented, as yet, to separate either water or impure air. Then, 
why not the citizens of Philadelphia proceed at once to have this 
bane removed from their midst? as the effects are more far-reach- 
ing, if one would only give it a thought, than the unpleasantness 
of the gas fumes, as the most ignorant is cognizant of the fact that 
all diseases and epidemics are contracted by the inhalation of the 
air we breathe, the same being impregnated by the person having 
the disease by the action on the blood, and it would be impossible 
for anyone to breathe the air inflated with these poisonous gases 
unless his health is injured in proportion to his being compelled 
to inhale the same. And owing to their unpleasant odor, one will 
not inhale the amount of oxygen they should. 

While nature will help a strong body to resist these poisonous 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 297 

effects, there are thousands of children and others who are ad- 
vanced in years who do not possess the vigor to withstand the 
effects of the poisonous gases which are necessary in the manufac- 
ture of their products. When we know all these are facts and we 
allow their continuation, the act of allowing the same is a mark of 
low principle of civilization on the part of those who are in power 
to enforce the laws, and by a further continuance, is a report to 
the citizens of Philadelphia being derelict to their duty in not see- 
ing that the laws were enforced, and would be in comparison as 
bad as compelling the citizens to drink impure water, which, no 
doubt, has already caused thousands to die with typhoid fever 
within a few years. 

I might say to those interested that the city of Camden had a 
long siege of legal proceedings to have the same line of manufac- 
turing of chemicals removed and succeeded, and we can see no 
reason why a city the size of Philadelphia should not take the 
fight along the same line and succeed ; and, if they desired, could 
possibly learn from Camden how to take a short cut to rid them- 
selves of this nuisance. 

Yours For Good Health. 



I 



SUICIDE RECORD IS BROKEN IN YEAR 1905. 

Unofificial statistics for the year show a great increase in the 
number of suicides and homicides in America, 9982 persons taking 
their own lives, as compared with 9240 last vear. 

The homicides total 9212, as compared with 8482 last year. 

The startling feature of the record is the increase in the number 
of murders committed by highwaymen, being 582, against 464 
during 1904. Four years ago the number was only 103. 

Jealousy provoked 579 murders and liquor 642. Homicides 
growing out of quarrels number 51 1 1. The record of self-destruc- 
tion is one of the most deplorable of the year, the number of prom- 
inent men being much larger than hitherto. The total is 9982, an 
increase of 542 over the list of the preceding year. The steadiness 
of the increase is indicated in the following table: In 1899, 5340; 
1900, 6775 ; 1901, 7245 ; 1902, 8567; 1904, 9240; T905, 9982. 

The legal executions numbered 133, of which 51 were in the 
North and 82 in the South. 



298 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

CIGARETTE SMOKERS NOT WANTED. 

A recruiting sergeant for the government has been mak- 
ing bitter complaint because of the low physical standard 
of young men who are applying for enlistment. He blames 
the cigarette as the agent most to blame for the shocking 
deterioration which he has witnessed in recent years. In all the 
cities of the North this evil is evident ; but in the cities of the South 
it is even more so. The applicants at New Orleans station were 
almost entirely unfit, an exceedingly small per cent, being able to 
pass the physical test. It is incomprehensible how young men and 
boys, not to say parents of the same, can be so indifferent to the 
consequences of this habit as they appear to be. Not only does 
the government discriminate against the victims of the early 
tobacco habit, but modern business has set its face rigidly against 
those who use the cigarette. Many railroads now not only forbid 
their use during hours of service, but will not allow anyone in their 
employ who smokes them out of hours. On the Mobile and Ohio, 
where this rule went into effect last year, it caused great resent- 
ment, being, as it was claimed, an infraction of personal liberty. 
The victims of the stern order had to submit or get out of s-ervice, 
and most of them submitted. A similar rule has just gone into 
effect on the Norfolk and Western, accompanied by the plain 
threat that non-compliance will be instant ground for dismissal. 
It will be seen by these facts that an indulgent parent who is now 
mdifferent as to his son's use of tobacco, especially in this objec- 
tionable form, is preparing his boy for a lot of trouble when he 
submits himself for places of service, either in business or the gov- 
ernment. 



A WOMAN'S PRACTICAL ARGUMENT. 

"What brings you here, Mary?" said Truesdell to his wife, as 
she entered the liquor store. 

"It was so lonesome at home, and your business seldom allows 
you to be there," replied his meek and resolute wife. "To me 
there is no company like yours, and as you cannot come to me, I 
must come to you. I have a right to share your pleasures as well 
.as vour sorrows." 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 299 

■''But to come to such a place as this !" expostulated Tom. 

"No place can be improper where my husband is," said poor 
Mary. 

She took up the glass of spirits which the saloonkeeper had just 
poured out for her husband. 

'Surely you are not going to drink?" said Tom, in huge aston- 
ishment. 

"Why not? You say that you drink to forget sorrow, and 
surely I have sorrow to forget?" 

''Woman, woman, you are not going to give that to the chil- 
dren !" cried Tom, as she was passing the glass of liquor to them. 

"Why not? Can children have a better example than their 
father's ? Is not what is good for him good for them also ? It will 
put them to sleep, and they will forget that they are cold and hun- 
gry. Drink, my children, this is fire and bed, and food and cloth- 
ing. Drink ; you see how much good it does your father." With 
seeming reluctance Mary suffered her husband to lead her home, 
and that night he prayed long and fervently that God would help 
Tiim to break an evil habit, and keep a newly formed, but firm res- 
olution. 

His reformation is thorough, and Mrs. Truesdell is now one of 
the happiest of women, and remembers with melancholy pleasure 
fier first and last visit to the dramshop. — The National Advocate. 



EARLY HABITS. 

The most important years, the years that give the trend for life, 
are the early ones, when the little dimpled hands are outstretched, 
when the baby soul is reaching forth and receiving ideas and im- 
pressions, when manners are formed and habits have their begin- 
T.ings. To leave the babies to irresponsible hired hands and lavish 
care and expense on half-grown children is the blunder of those 
who are ignorant or inexperienced as to vital issues. 

President King, of Oberlin College, in his admirable treatise on 
national Living, has this to say to young people, and I commend 
it to mothers : 

"Nowhere are the psychical and physical so completely inter- 



303 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE 01^ REASON. 

woven as in the phenomena of habit. The mind's initiative con- 
stantly comes in, but it is as constantly seconded by the nervous 
system. The time limit in habits is one of the strong evidences of 
the close connection of body and mind. It is a startling fact to 
face that a man's personal habits are largely fixed before he is 
twenty ; the chief lines of his future growth and acquaintance be- 
fore he is twenty-five, and his professional habits before he is 
thirty. 

We are becoming bundles of habits. With every young person 
one must, therefore, continually urge: Are you willing to retain 
just the personal habits you have now? You cannot too quickly 
change them if you wish to make thorough work. From your 
early morning toilet, through the care of your clothing and the 
order of your room, table manners, breathing, tone of voice, man- 
ner of talking, pronunciation, gesture, motion, address, study, to 
your very way of sleeping at night — all your habits are setting like 
plaster of paris." — Woman's Home Companion. 



POWER OF EXAMPLE. 

"I hear that Smith has just sold out his saloon," said one of a 
couple of middle-aged men who sat sipping their beer and eating 
a bit of cheese in an American saloon. ''Yes," responded the other 
rather slowly. "W^hat was the reason? I thought he was just coin- 
ing money there." The other nibbled a cracker abstractedly for 
a moment, and then said, "Smith, you know, lived on Mount 
Washington, right near me, where he has an excellent wife, a nice 
home, and three as pretty children as ever played outdoors. Smith 
is a pretty respectable sort of a citizen, never drinks or gambles, 
and thinks the world of his family. W^ell, he went home one after- 
noon last week, and found his wife out shopping. He went 
through the house into the back yard, and there under the apple- 
tree were the little fellows playing. They had a bench and some 
bottles and tumblers, and were playing 'keep saloon.' He noticed 
that they were drinking out of a pail, and that they acted tipsy. 
The youngest who was behind the bar, had a towel tied around 
his waist, and was setting the drinks up pretty free. Smith walked 
over and looked in the pail. It was beer, and two of the boys were 



the: twentieth century age of reason. 301 

so drunk that they staggered. A neighbor's boy, two years older, 
lay asleep behind the tree. 'Boys, you must not drink that!' he 
said, as he lifted the six-year-old from behind the bench. 'We's 
playin' s'loon, papa; an' I was selling it just like you,' said the 
little fellow. Smith poured out the beer, carried the drunken boy 
home, and then took his own boys home and put them to bed. 
When his wife came back she found him crying like a child. He 
came down town that night and sold his business, and says he 
will never sell or drink another drop of liquor. His wife told me 
about it, and she broke down crying while she told it." 



A GREAT CATASTROPHE. 

We grieve to know of the recent explosion in the Philadelphia 
subway, causing the loss of eight lives and injuries to twenty more. 
Also a damage to property amounting to $500,000.00. The cause 
is reported to be due to the lighting of a tobacco pipe, thereby ig- 
niting the gas. 

Without a doubt as to the truthfulness of the cause, is not this 
sufficient to arrest the attention of the nation and make us wonder 
how many other accidents occur that are unknown to us, from the 
use of tobacco? The cause sets us to reasoning as to who is to 
blame and where should the responsibility be placed. And, just 
here, how many of us can recall the large number of fires that we 
have seen or heard of, that have been due to smoking? It was 
reported by the Insurance Underwriters that the cause of the great 
Baltimore fire, which did damage to the extent of $150,000,000, 
was the dropping of a lighted cigar through an open cellar window. 
This is an enormous sum to be transformed into ashes. But where 
is the difference, if one should give it a thought, between the mil- 
lions of people using tobacco or have property destroyed by fire? 
The loss of the Baltimore fire was one-quarter of the amount con- 
sumed annually in tobacco, in the United States alone, which is 
$600,000,000. But this is not the only loss, for, if we would fig- 
ure the injuries done to the human race by the use of tobacco, in 
dollars and cents, it would far exceed the loss of the money that 
is consumed, perhaps the loss would be double, as its effects are 



302 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

SO far-reaching physically, because of the injuries done to the sys- 
tem from youth to old age ; also the greater part of the intemper- 
ance of to-day is due to the use of the weed, as it creates in many 
cases an appetite for intoxicating liquors. 

There can be scarcely any doubt that through the use of tobacco 
many thousands die prematurely. If a man who is a user of 
tobacco should die, on account of his excessive use of the weed, 
his family would not attribute his death to this cause, but claim it 
was due to something else, because the man was five years or more 
slowly poisoning himself. 

If he should work in a tobacco store and meet death by accident, 
his relatives would probably sue the tobacco company for damages, 
because of siipposed neglect. Then why not hold tobacco com- 
panies responsible for the death of thousands, as they fail to label 
their boxes of cigars and packages of cigarettes with the custom- 
ary sign for poison, and if not, why should it not be the duty of 
the Pure Food Commission to compel them to do so, as they have 
been doing with other commodities that man consumes? 

The natural defense of the tobacco merchant would be: "We 
did not entice the purchaser," but for the man to avoid going into 
his place, his nature would have to be changed as he desires to ac- 
quire any supposed luxury or he would have been blind-folded. 
Therefore, the man that makes the opportunity cannot escape the 
responsibility of damage, on the plea that if he did not keep his 
store open, someone else would, as every man is responsible for 
his own acts, as the merchant would be who neglected to use cau- 
tion to have prevented the acident, where his employe was in- 
jured. 

Therefore, whatever damage and injury there is done by the 
sale of tobacco by those who sell it are morally responsible for the 
damage. 

The man who lit his pipe doubtless had been doing so for many 
years, and it being injurious to health, the sam.e had affected his 
mental powers, causing his brain to be less sensitive to a sense of 
danger. 

Therefore, the one that sold the tobacco to him is the guilty one, 
the same as the druggist who sells poison is held responsible, as he 
does not know whether the purchaser is going to poison himself 



the: twentieth century age of reason. 303 

or someone else. The same with the manufacturer and those that 
sell tobacco. Whether the one that sells to will injure themselves 
or someone else by an explosion ; therefore, they should be made 
responsible for the damage, as the contractor did not hire the man 
to smoke but to work, and if living, should be made criminally re- 
sponsible, the same as the railroad employe who through un- 
thoughtfulness or neglect turns the wrong signal and wrecks the 
train. See subject page 99, ''Does the Use of Tobacco Cause Rail- 
road Accidents?" 



WHAT IS SUCCESS? 

To be successful in the true sense, the person must be a bene- 
factor. If by causing two blades of grass to grow instead of one, 
the same is a benefactor. Then, should it not be the purpose of 
every man to make his occupation and transaction that which will 
result in as great a good as possible to his f ellowman ? If all bus- 
iness was conducted on this principle there would not be so much 
discussion and concern regarding the future life. By living right, 
you will die right, and by saying we would live in accordance as 
was said of Christ, "He went about doing good ;" therefore, "A 
good name is rather to be chosen than great riches." And this 
being true, the man that lives this kind of a life is the successful 
man. As our deeds determine our joys and sorrows in this life, 
we should not be less mindful of the future life whereby we may 
be permitted to receive a greater happiness by keeping the spirit 
of Christ uppermost in all our transactions, as the sentiment is ex- 
pressed in the following: 

"Lives of great men oft remind us 

We can make our lives sublime, 
And departing, leave behind us 

Footprints on the sands of time. 
Footprints that perhaps another, 

Sailing over life's solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing, may take heart again." 



WHY I WAS INDUCED TO WRITE THIS BOOK. 

I can only attribute it to my environments. During my eighteen 
years of travel in various states, and stopping in a different place 
almost every night, frequently being compelled to stop at licensed 
hotels, gave me many opportunities to see human nature in its 
true sense. Making my visits annually, there were always many 
changes with my customers, especially with those who indulged 
in the so-called beverages, who in years became so dissipated that 
they were compelled to go out of business, and on subsequent visit, 
failing to find them, I inquired as to their whereabouts and heard 
the oft-repeated story that they tipped their elbow a little too often, 
attended the horse races, gambled, kept more than one woman, &c. 

I began to reason why all these conditions should be with man- 
kind. Some sober and industrious, some frivilous and sporty and 
neglecting their business, thereby many people lost large amounts 
of money by these people doing as here stated, and I had to share 
with others. 

Then my reason told me that drink was the cause of the same, 
and where did they procure it? Then I reasoned that they pro- 
cured it from the saloon, and if so, what political party granted 
the license ? And I also reasoned if I supported either by my vote, 
I voted to lose a thousand dollars annually to support a political 
party. I also reasoned that if I continued to do business in this 
manner, losing a thousand dollars or more annually, I would soon 
have a committee waiting upon me to find out my mental condi- 
tion. But because of my way of reasoning I do not wish anyone 
to think that if I could make a thousand dollars a year I would 
vote that intoxicating liquors should be sold, or vote with the 
party that produced these conditions. 

There is a moral obligation of a person's act, because of the 
many evils growing out of the same, which calls to my mind an 
incident which happened several years ago. There was a test vote 
taken in several counties in New Jersey, resulting in five counties 
out of six voting for no liquor, the odd one being Cape May 
county. This caused me to wonder why a farming district should 

304 



the; twentieth century age of reason. 305 

vote for liquor. The mystery was solved when we learned the 
farmers were afraid they would lose the sale of their truck or a 
few chickens at Cape May, as it was a summer resort, they were 
fearful that people would not patronize it if they were deprived of 
having liquor. Believing the county going wet was due as above 
stated, I learned later that one voter was a farmer and class leader 
who made no hesitancy in expressing his opinion. His name was 
the same as the writer's and I felt rather indignant and wished 
that it had been John Smith, but since learning more of human 
nature, it was not more than millions are doing at the present time 
and will continue as long as the liquor traffic business is kept in 
politics and controlled by the votes of the people. I can only ac- 
count for myself in making such strong protest is due to the 
knowledge I have obtained by my experience in seeing so much 
of the evil effects producing a dislike for the liquor traffic busi- 
ness, not so much for the saloonkeeper, as he is more to be pitied 
than condemned, because of such people as the class leader who 
voted that there should be license put in his way temptation to sell 
liquor, and he is simply in business to make money the same as the 
farmer and class leader, who voted that Cape May should be wet. 
My reason tells me that one is as guilty in the sight of God as 
the other, as the last act could not be performed without the first, 
and the saloonkeeper is acting as an agent to help make revenue, 
as many voters believe by the revenue helps to make taxes lower. 
Or, if a city when it receives its support from tourists, like Los 
Angeles or San Francisco, they vote for it because of the money 
end of it. The whole business is so linked together that there can 
be no discrimination regarding the sin, as I have clearly shown 
from my writings in this book, that it is impossible to change 
human nature, and as long as people make opportunities there al- 
ways will be people to accept the opportunity. Some may think 
it pessimistic or egotistical in the attempt to educate the people to 
this moral standard of the responsibility. Why should I not make 
the attempt, when all nations have attempted to regulate the liquor 
traffic and have failed? and at the present time in the State of 
Pennsylvania the liquor traffic seems to be the only thorn in the 
flesh, failing to unite with the Lincoln party. The same was 
when S. C. Swallow was running for Governor on the Prohibition 
ticket. When the prospect looked favorable for him being elected, 



3o6 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 

then the leading daily press turned against him to defeat him, 
making some excuses because he was a clergyman and a Metho- 
dist preacher and was not conversant with State rights. But at 
the present writing the Lincoln party says nothing about the liquor 
traffic and Emery is trying to get in on the credit of Lincoln, Re- 
publican, Democrat and Prohibitionist, and apparently by the sup- 
port of the liquor traffic, as he declared he would as leave support 
a brewery as a church or any other philanthropic institution. And 
if the Lincoln party should be successful by saying nothing about 
it, the new reform party will follow the example that as men will 
come and men will go, but the liquor traffic will go on for ever. 

Is it any wonder we have such a slow process of educating the 
people of what to do with the liquor traffic? Is it any wonder 
when it takes so long, as when a wise man like Abraham Lincoln 
voted during the time of the Civil War to raise revenue by taxing 
liquor. He certainly did not understand the physiological effects 
it would have regarding the question of profits, and every voter 
considers and fails to look at the immoral effect. Lincoln may 
have seen his mistake which caused him to say, "You can fool all 
men sometimes, but you can't fool all men all the time." And if 
one should be desirous to become morally educated, I would 
recommend them to read the reply to Robert Ingersoll's eulogy to 
whiskey and can only regard the same as my sentiments. It 
might be explained by a short story of two Italians selling pies. 
One on the opposite side of the street with a good strong voice 
would say, 'Ties for sale," and the one with the weak voice would 
say, "I too." The same is more fully expressed by the following 
verse : 

For the cause that needs assistance ; 

Against the wrongs that need resistance, 
And for the future in the distance 

And the good that I can do. 

Because of these far-reaching effects that liquor has on the 
nation, I would be derelict to my duty if I did not write on the 
evil effects. Believing these narcotic habits are controlling the 
manhood of our nation and are like the tares of the parable of the 
sower which grew up and choked the good seed and hinders the 
development of the youth of our country, and are smothering the 
good intentions and purposes. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE O:^ REASON. 307 

We believe there are millions who would be glad to let this sub- 
ject alone but they will not let you alone, as it so affects the home, 
the church, the State and poHtics, as you will see by the clipping 
from the North American, which shows the political condition 
which would remind one of the old saying, when the boy asked his 
mother, *'May I go into swim. Yes, my son, hang your clothes on 
a hickory limb, but don't go near the water." In other words, the 
same applies in attempting to make a reform ticket as Philadelphia 
has done, but don't say anything about the liquor traffic. Then, 
make an appeal to Prohibitionists to help them out, which may not 
be for their great numbers, as it would evidently give their party a 
prestige by the endorsement which would count for much. By so 
doing, it would appear that the church people were in favor of 
them, and those interested in the political condition might become 
better informed by reading the following letter : 

SWALLOW IN SECOND LETTER REPEATS ATTACK 

ON EMORY. 

Harrisburg, Pa.^ July 21, 1906. 
Hon. Lewis Bmery, Bradford, Pa. 

My Dear Mr. Emery : — The letter I wrote you on July 9 was a 
private communication, and for your sake I regret that you made 
it public. There were but two copies made ; one I sent you, the 
other was in my office, and unless copied surreptitiously by some 
one, I did not give it out. The fact that you read it on Monday to- 
Professor Rockwood and others in your office and sent copies to 
Mr. Likins and others renders it probable that you gave it publicity 
for the purpose of working the sympathy plan, and at the same 
time bidding for the whisky vote. 

I wrote it with the best of motives to ascertain from you the 
truth or falsity of certain allegations touching your lack of fitness 
for a place at the head of the Prohibition ticket. This it was my 
duty to do, as I must soon as a committeeman conscientiously pass 
on that fitness, and my vote might determine your admission or 
rejection as a Prohibition candidate for the highest office in the 
gift of the voters of Pennsylvania. 



3o8 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

EXPECTED RESPECTFUL REPLY. 

I expected you would answer me respectfully, since I had thus 
addressed you, briefly stating which allegations, if any, were false 
and which, if any, were true. 

In your letter to Mr. Likins, editor of the People's Tribune, Un- 
iontown. Pa., but in which you evasively attempt to answer only 
a few of the inquiries found in my letter to you, you grow "indig- 
nant" and affect to be ''insulted," and your "wife breaks down" 
because I asked you whether the rumor is correct that "you place 
intoxicants before your guests in your own home?" Then, after 
all this gush and self-martyrdom, you admit that "in my house and 
upon my sideboard is the liquor for the family. It is there for my 
family and friends if they so desire." 

Why then be "insulted" at being asked whether a rumor is true, 
while you admit the truth of it? You say of your wife, "she has 
taught her children the dangers of liquor drinking." What would 
you say of a father who kept a nest of vipers in his dining room 
for the amusement of his children, over whom the wife must 
stand guard day and night in order to protect them from being 
bitten? Or, have you never read that "wine is a mocker, strong 
drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise," 
and that other warning of the wisest king, "Look not upon the 
wine when it is red * * ^i' for at last it biteth like a serpent and 
stingeth like an adder," or are you a disciple of IngersoU, ignoring 
''the Word?" 

SAYS EMERY ADMITS CHARGE. 

You say of me, "If he had heard this scandal" — namely, plac- 
ing intoxicants before guests, etc. — "he should have hurled the re- 
lator to the ground, he should have stricken him to the earth," etc. 
But what for ? Making a statement which you admit is true ? If 
it is a scandal to ask a man privately whether he sets liquor before 
his guests, then how scandalous it is for the man to do such a 
thing. Brother Emery, suffer a word of exhortation, quit it for- 
ever ! 

You say "none of my family nor myself are total abstainers, 
none are drunkards, none are tipplers, none are even moderate 
drinkers." You claim to have been drunk but "once in vour life 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OE REASON. 3O9.. 

when a boy." In this I rejoice with you, remembering that the 
word drunk is a variable term. One admits he has been drunk 
only when he awakes in the guard house; another when dragged 
out of the gutter; another when he has had a midnight "bout with 
the boys," and on his return home has lost the key or keyhole, or 
both ; while others honestly admit that a glass of beer or wine or 
champagne produces an abnormal though to the onlooker an in- 
visible efifect. 

However, the half million railroad men now under total absti- 
nence orders from their employers have been given to understand 
that because a single drink of intoxicating liquor taken at any time 
rnay blunt their sensibilities, therefore drunkenness is to be cer- 
tainly avoided only by absolute abstaining. You say **none of us 
love whisky and we rarely drink it." We answer, people differ in 
their tastes and appetites. Some prefer gin, others rum, others 
brandy and still others beer or champagne. Some of the most 
dangerous drunkards in the world are wine and beer drinkers. 
They ''rarely drink whisky." 

You say, "I was in California when the brewery was located in 
Bradford," and how could I take stock in it, or secure its location 
in Bradford? Will you swear that you did not send a telegram 
which determined the matter? You say, "Had I been at home I 
would not have withheld my donation from that brewery, no more 
than I would from the churches, schools or hospitals." 

Well! well! Here is another Burchard come to judgment. All' 
will remember the "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion" bull that de- 
feated Blaine and elected Cleveland. 

Were you really yourself when you wrote that sentence, or did" 
some Burchard write it for you? 

If the Christian people of Pennsylvania can gulp you down after 
that ; if the young people's societies and the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Associations can vote to put a man at the head of our gov- 
ernment who places the drink factories on a par with the church, 
the school and the hospital, then we miss our guess. 

The churches teach in exact language that "no political party 
ought to receive the support of Christian men so long as it fails to 
put itself on record in an attitude of open hostility to the liquor 
traffic." Yet your benevolence bunches the brewery and the 
church. 



3IO the; TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

The school books in nearly every State in the Union teach that 
the product of the brewery is not food, but poison. That it blunts 
the moral sensibilities, clouds the intellect and rapidly deteriorates 
man's physical powers, but you contribute with equal facility and 
felicity to the brewery and to the school, two antagonistic institu- 
tions. 

BREWERY PRODUCTS FlIvIvS ASYLUMS. 

The product of the brewery more than any other agency fills 
our hospitals, insane asylums and almshouses, and yet you are as 
liberal in your contributions to the bane of society as to its bless- 
ings. 

The product of the brewery has impoverished thousands of fam- 
ilies in our State, rendering the children shoeless, hatless and 
■naked, and their pinched faces and fieshless limbs are all sad re- 
minders that the church and the school are closed to them, and 
only the hospital or almshouse remains open to them, and yet you 
liave the brazen impudence to boast that you are happy in bestow- 
ing your benefactions on the greatest agency of misery and crime 
as when bestowing them on tjie agencies established to prevent 
crime and to save the criminal. 

Your reference to the beverage use of liquor in your father's 
liouse might serve as an excuse for your own low estimate of civic 
virtue had you lived these sixty-six years in some other country 
where the public conscience had not been educated by press, pulpit 
and platform as it has in America. If ignorant here, it is wilful 
and inexcusable. 

To seriously treat the liquor business as a legitimate industry, 
to be encouraged by good men, at a time when 38,000,000 of our 
population have driven it from their midst, when railroads and 
other large employers of labor are establishing prohibition for 
their employes, and when life insurance companies and civic and 
eleemosynary societies are closing their doors to the patrons of the 
brewery and the still, gives evidence of a moral and mental ob- 
tuseness in you, which in their sober second thought will prevent 
the moral voters of this State from honoring you with their 
suffrage. 



the; twentieth century age of reason. 311 

disappointed in their moses. 

This is to be deplored, for we fondly looked to you as our Moses 
to lead the united reform forces in overthrowing the Gang rule 
that for a quarter of a century has deprived us of an honest count 
of the Prohibition vote. But so it is. Your letter to Mr. Likins, 
if there were no other evidence, is quite sufficient to establish your 
utter unfitness to rule as Governor 6,000,000 of people, a majority 
of whom still believe that the Church, the school and the hospital 
have claims infinitely superior to the brewery, the saloon and the 
brothel. 

Your insinuation that my private letter to you was inspired by 
some corporate or corrupt influence is false. 

I am as much opposed to the Standard Oil Company's methods 
as are you, and wish to assure you that in fighting them I never 
have and never will build a succession of oil refineries and sell 
them out to the Standard at ten times their value, and fight them 
only when they refuse to buy another. 

And now, Mr. Emery, an item of business: I am soliciting 
from each of the five Gubernatorial candidates an article, not to 
exceed 700 words, stating what each stands for in this campaign, 
to be accompanied by a half-tone cut of the author. I want these 
articles for the September number of the Church Forum, a month- 
ly periodical edited and published by me. Extra copies may be 
sent to addresses furnished by you at a reasonable price. 

Trusting that while we do not "see eye to eye" on some things, 
yet that we may strive to emphasize our agreements rather than 
our differences, I bed to remain, 

Yours fraternally, 

S. C. SWALLOW. 

A MYSTERY SOLVED TN A NUT SHELL. 

As every generation comes and passes away they all have a 
struggle for the maintenance of better government, the same mak- 
ing a dividing line between the evil forces, which are as only one 
man by the combination of many. We also know that whatever 
acts he does or line he takes up that terminates into evil, only 
goes to strengthen the forces of evil. But we have no doubt that 
there is not one of those who are in the combine of evil forces who 



312 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

would not rather secure his subsistence by honest and honorable 
ways, if he thought it were possible to secure the same. But, ow- 
ing to being like the animal, he must secure a living and does it, 
regardless of the expense to others. Therefore, the whole human 
race is thrown into one great struggle, the same as from youth 
to manhood, to secure the essential things — shelter, food and 
clothing; hence, he is, of necessity, compelled to get his living 
somehow, whether he be on the side for good or evil. 

Therefore, the problem is on us, and while we have such sur- 
roundings as we do in this generation, owing to this, we will 
have to wait for the next generation to remove these obstacles, 
owing to the habits that tend to defile our bodies, as experience 
has shown us that a habit will control a m_an, and the same with 
the aggregate. But by exercising the same care for ourselves that 
we do for our animals which have a money value to us, we could 
help the next generation to live as it should. We must practice 
the sayings of Paul : "I live not after the flesh, but after the 
spirit." Hence, by the removal of such defiling substances the 
body will be more capable of keeping the animal propensities and 
lusts under control, by not using those things which create a ten- 
dency towards these passions, he will have a stronger reasoning 
power and will go a long ways tov/ard making a more virtuous 
and satisfied people. 

If men in this generation will act on this principle, the mystery 
will be solved as to why the Prohibition party has never succeeded 
in accomplishing its purpose. As every intellgent person knows 
ihat by the use of intoxicating liquors is more far-reaching in its 
effects than any one known product, as heretofore shown, thereby 
the animal will always predominate over the spiritual. By this is 
shown the importance of using reason to desist from using such 
products as will destroy reason, because the government's pure 
food law permits the manufacturing of the same for beverage pur- 
poses. Therefore, the man animal will always acquire the appe- 
tite for it, because of the supposed luxury, and if an attempt is 
made to deprive them of its use a claim is made that we are inter- 
fering with their personal liberty, but they do not reason that there 
are 100,000 who die annually because of its use, and those who are 
trying to prevent them are only acting as guardians for the love 
they have for humanity. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 313 

While there may be some alchemists and doctors who favor its 
use and believe there may be some beneficial effects to the body 
and brain, but by doing so he sets his judgment against the Scrip- 
tures, which were written by inspiration and in which we are told 
that "Strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby 
is not wise," Supposing the deception comes in because of the 
action on the heart, which pumps the blood through the veins and 
arteries to the brain and strengthening the nerves, causing a re- 
action, resulting in an injury instead of a benefit to the body the 
same as taking arsenic or strychnine in small doses. Either will 
quicken the heart's action and an overdose will paralyze it, and 
you might as well expect your horse to last longer by applying 
the lash. 

The reason why all nations have used intoxicating liquors is be- 
cause they subsist as the animal on things which support life. But 
because the products of nature are subject to decay during the 
process of manufacturing, causing fermentation and separation of 
the poisonous parts, and owing to our constitutional makeup to 
acquire a knowledge, we become a victim to taste, not because of 
any inbred desire, and owing to its effects on those who become 
victims, they give it the name of luxury, but instead it is compul- 
sory that one drink begets a desire for another. 

The product from which these poisons are made is not the neces- 
sity of life as the only true luxury, as in making use of them to 
support the body before fermentation takes place, but because of 
the profit men make in the business of selling the spirits of a dead 
product, as the kernel must die to produce a spirit and the person 
that sells it is a dealer in departed spirits of wheat, rye and corn 
and the consumer makes himself a receptacle to contain them, as 
his body is made from parts of the earth, it is impossible for the 
earth to produce the best fruit when a poison substance is taken 
up by the earth. 

This solves the problem why a man becomes overpowered by 
attempting to contain a spirit, as all such has an upward tendency 
and the brain would be the most likely to be affected thereby by the 
oft repeated unnatural intruder and by it nature tries to make an 
escape. It being a poison, we cannot expect anything else than 
reason will be dethroned, and if people will persist in its use, it 
makes its own slaves in ever}' generation, and there is no way of 
preventing its use as long as it is made, as each generation makes 



314 *I'HE TWENTIETH CENTURY AGE OF REASON. 

a demand for its use, and on this principle we must creat a condi- 
tion so to create a man to have an abnormal system and when he 
dies the other must be made to support the 250,000 saloons to meet 
the demands of society. 

When we reason that we are only educated animals and as the 
anim.al, by instinct, avoids poison. When man imitates the lower 
animal we have solved the problem what to do with alcoholic bev- 
erages. Further, when this is acepted as positive, then another 
problem will be solved, namely, why we have so many divorce 
cases. If one should allow their reason to lead them up to the 
knowledge that three-quarters of the people which fill the alms- 
houses, penitentiaries and insane asylums due to the evils also 
crimes committed directly or indirectly by defiling the body and 
brain, the people of our nation, and supposing that three-quarters 
of the wars which have occurred in the world's history are due to 
the use of intoxicating liquors, and as we know history repeats it- 
self, we may continue to look for a repetition of the past just so 
long as the people permit this nuisance to go on murders and the 
most atrocious crimes will be committed as have been in the past. 

When God created all animals and man He made them with all 
the internal apparatus necessary to distill and abstract the sub- 
stance necessary for the body and to separate the component parts 
of their poison, and as yet no man has ever been able to construct 
or invent anything to surpass his Creator, and, for man to make 
the attempt to improve on God's still, the process of digestion by 
making alcohol to be appropriated to man's body he might as well 
try and invent or make a man that would be adapted to the use of 
alcohol, or for one to attempt to remove the political corruption 
as it would be as inconsistent to cure a cancer by faith cure. 

We, as a nation, have now arrived at a point of great advance- 
ment as known in the world's history. Then why not advance a 
step further and apply our knowledge to govern the human race 
by applying the saying of the Scripture, "Ye are the salt of the 
earth," enforcing the pure food law and prohibiting the manufac- 
ture of an article for beverage purposes which contains poison, 
and by a failure on the part of those who have the power should 
be compared as "If the salt has lost its savor, wherein will it be 
salted?" Whereby we may secure the happiness that the human 
race is struggling for. Then we will have made a new epoch in 
the world's history. 



CONCLUSION. 

Knowing it is natural for all people to do more or less criticis- 
ing, when the sayings and writings of others interferes with their 
interest, whether it be in business or an encroachment of what 
many style personal liberty, and for this reason I wish to disabuse 
from the reader's mind other than a good motive for the purpose 
of leading the present and future generation to a higher ideal of 
living. Believing that the larger part of those that read the con- 
tents of this booklet will approve of the author's motive, but with 
others who may differ, I can only say, if they wish to see the pur- 
pose of this writing by practicing the title, ''Come, let us reason 
together," and as their knowledge increased, their prejudice will 
be expelled, thereby their devotion to bad habits will be expelled 
by accepting the truth, and as truth is as essential to the maintain- 
ing of good government as the X-rays is to the exposing of a bul- 
let which has penetrated to the vital parts of the body, for this 
reason I have not spared in probing for the bullet which the enemy 
has shot into the very heart of our nation, causing fixed habits to 
be formed, which is effectual in the destruction of the human race 
as the arrow whose point is dipped in poison. I feel I would be 
derelect in my duty if I did not cry aloud and spare not, and apply 
the old adage, "It is our best friend that tells us of our faults, and 
shows us how to correct them." Believing the nation has become 
involved in corruption because of the environments made by the 
love of money that the nation is in danger of its accomplishing 
what is required of it, and what it should do. And as one citizen 
can be corrupt, so can the whole nation ; and as the condition at 
the present time, and how many large cities they are attempting to 
free themselves, and the author feels it his duty on his part to act 
as a patriot in endeavoring to educate the people, knowing that 
knowledge is power, and power without knowledge is dangerous. 
Knowing that a Republican form of government cannot rise any 
higher than the morals of its people, it behooves every citizen to 

315 



3i6 the; twentieth century age o^ reason. 

do his part by using his influence and voting to cause conditions 
to be made that others beside himself will so make environments 
by removing the gardens of Eden of temptation <that all mankind 
will enjoy all the happiness which was intended by our Creator. 
Believing that this can only be accomplished by following the 
advice of a Scriptural verse, "Study to know thyself approved unto 
God, as a workman that need not be ashamed." By the study on 
the part of those who desire to make their own condition and 
others better will be enabled, with the gift, to see ourselves as oth- 
ers see us ; thereby avoiding being ashamed, either of your busi- 
ness or politics. By loving party more than principle or money 
more than manhood on the part of those who are holding office, 
from the lowest to the highest. 

My object in writing this book is to prove the impossibilities to 
improve the human race and still continue with our present politi- 
cal system in making opportunities for graft that they can live 
from the vices of its people. 

Because of such a condition there is a great need of lovers of 
good government to be as patriotic now as in the days of the 6o's, 
by creating a demand for their product before there is a de- 
mand, thereby the forced need is not of man's normal condition 
but because he has taken a poison product into his system and the 
victim is being unconsciously lullabied, as it were, to sleep, regard- 
ing those who procure their living in this way, and because of 
these insidious evils that are marring the happiness of millions of 
homes there is a general awakening to the various methods which 
the enemy of good government has adopted, as it were, has be- 
come one of us, and believing there is no other way whereby man 
can secure the happiness that was intended he should possess, 
every man having the spirit that he is his brother's keeper, thereby 
we can have a better world now and hereafter. 

The Author. 



64 



THE MONITOR. 



99 



licf'fe.^. 




The above cut is in honor ot Ivricsson, the inv tntor ot the JSavai t>hip "MONITOR" 
which did such noble work during the Civil War. 

Believing in the old proverb that "Honor should be given to whom 
honor is due," we have taken the above means as a partial recognition of 
the man and believe the following memorial applicable to him : 

Whether we be great or small, 

The work we do is best of all; 
While we are here for one short stay 

Our deeds remain after we pass away. 

We think that this can truthfully be said of Ericsson, and feeling that 
there may be many who are not familiar with the great service the 
"MONITOR" was to our nation, when in the hour of great need, during 
the terrible battle between the "MONITOR" and "MERRIMAC" which 
resulted in a glorious victory for the boys in blue. 

Our government has, for some reason, failed to erect a monument in 



honor 



Ericsson, hence our reason for the above, in addition to which we 



have also compiled a book entitled "THE MONITOR," and believe that 
if the precepts and principles contained therein are practiced by its readers 
the book will not have had its mission in vain but will, in its way, be of as 
great service to our nation as was the "MONITOR" of Civil War fame. 



The Christian Advocate, JamKS M. Buckluy, Editor. 

"The Monitor," by S. B. Goff, supports its name by its contents. These 
are comprised in one hundred and twenty-seven articles, many short, but 
others very long. Warnings against tobacco in twenty-six chapters cover- 
ing various phases; liquor in twenty-seven articles; and various other 
topics. The author's views are positive and positively expressed. 



From The Camden Outlook : 

A book entitled "The Monitor," compiled by our esteemed townsman, 
Mr. S. B. Goff, being a treatise upon many topics which occupy the public 
mind, we find to possess much merit, and has brought together some ad- 
mirable matter concerning many vital subjects upon which it behooves men 
and women to get the right perspective. The device upon the title page — 
and scroll, the pen, the Grecian lamp and many solid tomes upon which 
they rest — are significant. Ben Johnson's well known sentiment, "No man 
is so wise but that he may easily err, if he will take no other counsel but 
his own," is a bit of wisdom adorning the title page, which carries its own 
sage moral. We commend the book to our readers. 



Camden, N. J. 
Mr. S. B. Goff. 

Dear Brother ; — I have been reading the book recently published by 
you and think that it is indeed well named, "The Monitor." I wish that 
the young men of this and other cities could be persuaded to read it and 
hope that it will be placed in all our Y. M. C. A.'s and public libraries. 
Wishing you God speed, I am, Sincerely yours, 

(Rev ) CHAS. BOWDEN. 



Mr. S. B. Goff, Camden, N. J. 

My Dear Mr. Goef : — "The Monitor" is on my study table. Its con- 
tents remind me of breezes out of the northwest. These are generally 
clearing-up breezes full of tonic and health to the country. This book of 
yours, read and adopted by young men, would bring to them the north- 
westerly breezes of health and vigor for their whole life. Walking in the 
light of "The Monitor" there would be for them no danger from the malar- 
ious vices of profanity, tobacco, intemperance, and general indolence. May 
these good, strong breezes keep blowing for generations yet to come ! 
They are clear and pure, just the right kind of breezes in which to walk 
and think and live. Very sincerely yours, 

(Rev.) JAMES WILLIAM MARSHALL, 
Pastor of Saint Paul's Church, Ocean Grove, N. J. 

Formerly President of Pennington Seminary.. 



"THE MONITOR." 

The above is the title of an octavo volume, bound in red cloth, from 
the pen of Dr. S. B. Gofif, of Camden, New Jersey. The title page bears 
this inscription : "A treatise on many of the leading topics of the day. In- 
formation regarding home and political economy. Causes of money panics, 
and depressions in business. Causes of the evils existing in politics to- 
day. The necessity of a new political party. The need of more practical 
knowledge. Why it is essential to make environments." 

Not only for the general reader, but as a book of ready reference on 
a great variety of subjects, the volume is very valuable, and should find a 
place in the libraries of all who desire to be well informed. — Church Forum 



I 



Abuse of Our Bodies. 



I would have a feeling of condemnation if I should not say something regarding 
the same. -There could be many pages written on this one subject. This body which 
has been given us, as the Scriptures say, to be kept for the temple of the indwelling 
of the Holy Spirit. To be such, requires both knowledge and will power to overcome 
the many propensities which enter into the physical part of man. 

There are two very important things that have more to do regarding the develop- 
ment of the body, and owing to the want of knowledge, on the part of the young, and 
often with those who have many years to their life, and, because of the condition of 
mankind believing there is no better way to prevent the abuses to the body than to im- 
part knowledge by line upon line and precept upon preqept, as there are very few per- 
sons who, if they had their lives to live over and with their present knowledge, would 
act and do very differently to their own bodies. And as the saying, we go this way 
but once, we can only improve the present and leave behind such knowledge that some 
other erring one may be prevented from the many abuses of the body, which the human 
race is subject to by not regarding the laws of health and making afflictions to their own 
body. As there are many things we can do to lower ourselves in our own estimation 
and that of others which is produced because of the same, being one of the God-given 
purposes to multiply and replenish the earth. This disposition is natural, and if we did 
not possess them, we would be an unnatural being. 

The Scriptures speak of Solomon with all his wives and concubines, who says all 
is vanity and vexation of spirit; also speak of Oman. And as all these accounts are 
given in the Holy Writ, they were given that the future generation might learn a les- 
son from these evil practices of man. Feeling that this generation is not heeding, and 
seeing the great need of such a book, I became so impressed with its usefulness of the 
many warnings, I have purchased the copyright of Dr. Gleason's work, entitled, "How 
to Acquire and Preserve Health." The author of this is C. W. Gleason, M. D., Professor 
of the Institutes of Medicine and Surgery, Editor of the Physiologist, Author of the L,aws 
of Life and Art of Preserving Health, Popular Lecturer on Sanitary Sciences, &c. 

DR. GLEASON'S LECTURES: 



The Organs of Digestion. 

Nutrition. 

Diseases Caused by Indigestion. 

How to Strengthen the Heart. 

Diseases of the Blood. 

The Organs of Respiration. 

The Brain and Nerves. 

Diseases of the Brain and Nerves. 

The Organs of Locomotion. 

Disease of the Skin. 

Disease of the Urinary Organs. 

Disease of Women. 

Organs of Human Life. 



The Stomach and Liver. 

How to Acquire Good Digestion. 

Circulation of the Blood. 

Disease of the Heart. 

Catarrh. 

How to Strengthen Weak Lungs. 

The Spinal Chord and Nerves. 

Anatomy of the Ear. 

How to Acquire Strength. 

How to Bathe Properly. 

Constitution of Women. 

Animal Life and Vegetable. 



Feeling that such a book was needed in every home, and endeavoring to make the 
same possible, and, had devoted this page that some one might know of it and be ben- 
efitted thereby, as my knowledge of its usefulness where it has been in families has 
been of great value. It has, in many cases, and where I believe the same would be 
most useful I have given many of these works to such, whereby the diffusion of knowl- 
edge would be beneficial, but as we all know there is a limit to all donors, have taken 
this method of advertising its contents, in connection with the "Monitor and The 
Twentieth Century Age of Reason." Believing those who may perchance read them 
will receive in knowledge which will far exceed the cost of all these works. 



A Book You Should Read. 



A few interesting subjects taken from the book entitled "The Mon- 
itor'' published by The Monitor Pubushing Co., Camden, N. J. : 

Brewers' and Distillers' Rights and What the Government Should Do, 198 
Decline of the Christian Religion and the Rise of Catholicism and 

Mormonism, The 98 

Evils of Life Insurance vs. Their Benefits, The 224 

How the Environments Cause the Fjirst Downward Step of Both Boy 

and Man by the Indulgence in the Use of Tobacco 5 

Is the World Growing Better ? , 165 

Liquor Traffic is Not the Only Nuisance, The 220 

Philadelphia's New Era in Politics 291 

Saloon-keeper's Legal Rights, The 200 

Saloon Peril, The - 120 

Should Not the Government be Held Responsible for the Damages 

Growing out of the Liquor Traffic ? 195 

Why Do People Drink Intoxicating Liquors ? 54 

Why I am a Democrat : Why I am a Republican : Why I am a Pro- 
hibitionist 154 

Why Religion is Not Equal to Its Demands 114 

Why the Anti-Saloon League Does Not Succeed 129 

Why the Parochial School is a Curse to the Church, a Menace to the 

Nation 94 

Why the Prohibition of the Sale of Liquor is Called Sumptuary 137 

Why the Prohibition Party Has Not Succeeded in Accomplishing Its 

Purpose 151 

Why There Should Be Only Two Political Parties 178 

Action of Alcohol: Why and How It Makes a Man Intoxicated 242 

Andrew Carnegie's Biggest Benefactions 268 

Are Those Who Oppose Liquor Traffic Hypocrites ? 43 

A Short Story by Tallie Morgan 74 

Can Men Be Legislated Into Good Morals ? 46 

Cost of Smoking Three Cigars a Day at Five Cents Each 88 

Influence of Environments on the Growth of the Human Race 72 

Liquor and Longevity 241 

Mormons and Mormonism: Origin of Polygamy Among the Mormons. 105 

Obesity a Disease 295 

Parents' Part, The 306 

Relation of Alcohol to the Digestive Organs 32 

Scientific Testimony on Beer by Senator J. H. Gallinger , . . 143 

Tobacco : Napoleon's First Smoke 2>7 

Use of Tobacco From a Moral Point of View . 30 

What the Farmer Loses Through the Traffic 85 

Whisky Good and Bad : Ingersoll's Eulogy of Whisk> 241 



FEB 27 1907 



J 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS % 



021 048 017 1 



